Got it 👍 That makes a lot of sense. You’ve nailed the problem most learners hit:

👉 You know every word, but you don’t see the scaffolding — where the main verb is, and how everything else is just wrapping around it.

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Why comprehension breaks down

In English, the “main verb” is usually close to the front.

He introduced the job of the parents of the student.

Easy to spot what’s happening.

In Chinese, the main verb often gets buried under layers of nesting.

他介绍的学生的父母的工作

You don’t see the “main thing” (工作) until the very end.

Everything before was just modifiers stacked up.

So if you read word-for-word left → right, you drown in details and miss the structure.

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How to untangle a sentence

Here’s a step-by-step strategy (like reverse-engineering):

1. Find the last noun/verb → usually the main thing.

工作 → job

信 → letter

学生 → student

2. Check if there’s a 的 before it → if yes, everything before modifies it.

他介绍的 → modifies 学生 → the student he introduced

学生的父母 → modifies 工作 → the job of the student’s parents

3. Mark the main verb (if not inside 的) → that tells you what the sentence does.

我朋友在学校前面那个商店工作 → main verb is 工作 → subject is 我朋友

4. Rebuild the sentence in English backwards → so the nesting makes sense.

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Example untangling

不以结婚为目的的恋爱都是耍流氓

1. Main verb = 是 (hidden in 都是) → predicate = 耍流氓

2. Subject = 不以结婚为目的的恋爱 = love that does not have marriage as its goal

3. Full: “Love that does not aim at marriage is hooliganism.”

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💡 In short:

的 is your nesting glue

Last noun = main thing

Last verb (not frozen by 的) = main action

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👉 Would you like me to build you a practice set of medium-length sentences, and we’ll walk through “find main verb + main noun + nesting” together? That way you can train your “sentence compass” until it feels automatic.

summarise my day really

I got stuck in the difference between 不得不 and 得不得了meaning have to, no choice but to and terribly, exceedingly, completely, overly. grammar tangent because I had misread it has 急得不得不了 😂 that extra bu I just kept thinking why would they negate overly anxious in this sentence.

read another article a large use of words not commonly used so difficult but was interesting to keep 专心 "Ayesha Curry Opens Up About Marriage and Motherhood with NBA Star Stephen Curry"

read an article "Former Shanghai Shenhua Player Mao Jianqing Praises Li Weifeng as Most Impressive Player in Professional Team" on a new website really like the concept as i don't like flashcards but enjoy reading will try to do at least 1 article daily. I like the comprehension mark so i dont waste too much time reading too high above my level

出事以后 chapter 5-6 30 mins will try again later finally getting into it again good books really.

really 3 hours but am going to put 2 hours because of how many off tangents grammar reading i did lol separable verbs 呢, 吧, 吗 use in a question all very interesting but actual reading said story minimal re-reading Chinese breeze 出事以后 and pausing on grammar am unsure of.

excruciating 15 mins lol I read from the HSK 4 app again getting bored with the story but I think the biggest challenge today was actually not recalling what words meant so a lot of looking up but was also kind of impatient to get it over with rather than making the effort to recall. I am going to look for something more engaging tomorrow or result back to Chinese breezes books.

another 15 minutes this morning just reading the hsk4 app story new grammar structure learned 既....又 and only a few words unknown so making it a great balance for me right now. also able to switch from simplified to traditional and listening to the reader to mimick along good practice all round will keep going still hoping to find easy materials to read but perhaps it will just have to be short articles for now.

Read the hsk 4 app short story today and yesterday but forgot to log it. Going to try and get some more reading done now before bed

HSK 1234 app stories trad and simplified
after spending day character counting, anki deck sorting cards i dont use 😂 I decided finally for this challenge I am going to read the Hsk4 app stories both in traditional and simplified to ease the transition and to stop buying more resources/books until have sold the books I already have. Read various sample of books in my hunt today but am only going to count 15 mins as full concentration

Chinese breeze book simplified

Still hunting for material in the meantime reading transcripts for interviews and shows have watched in traditional and get more familiar with zhuyin can see slight dfferences in sound.

I went back to Mandarin Bean today to re-read The story of Nezha. Will use this platform until I find longer stories/ content. The switch has not been that difficult out of known characters there were 260+ characters I now need to get used to the traditional on top of learning new ones which I am discovering everyday but not intentionally trying to cram.

looking forward to finding great reads to get lost in.

HSK transcript this morning
not sure the plan yet but most likely continue with graded readers
spent the morning learning Zhuyin so considering switching to traditional now and find graded readers for traditional. Will see how the next few days go finding "comprehensible" content.
** magazines from the library are traditional