<p>The 的 in the two sentences have different functions</p>
<ul>
<li><p>[大学的] + [二年级学生] --&gt; [of the university] + [the second-year students] = &quot;<strong>the second-year students</strong> of the university&quot; (的 here is a possessive marker that indicates the university possess the second-year students)</p>
</li>
<li><p>[大学二年级的] + [学生]--&gt; [of the second-year class in the university] + [students] = &quot;<strong>the students</strong> of the second-year class in the university&quot; (的 here is an adjective marker that marks 'the second-year class' as an adjectival phrase that describes the students. It can be reduced to '大学二年级学生' because unlike the possessive 的, the adjectival 的 is often omitted</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Example sentence:</p>
<p>我們大学的二年级学生有一半是外國人 (Half of the second-year students in our university are foreigners)</p>
<p>小張是一名大学二年级(的)学生 (Xiao Zhang is a second-year university student)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-12T07:35:49.227Z
2020-11-12T07:43:18.993Z
2020-11-12T07:43:18.993Z
Tang Ho
<p>My mom says 大学二年级的学生 is correct, but I don't understand how the other one is wrong. I believe both convey the same meaning. Is one wrong because of syntax?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-16T10:31:48.623Z
I would simply say 大二学生 though. Use one of 初/高/大/研 plus one of 一/二/三/四...
tsh
<grammar><word>
What is the difference between 大学的二年级学生 and 大学二年级的学生?
# What is the difference between 大学的二年级学生 and 大学二年级的学生?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-11-12)

My mom says 大学二年级的学生 is correct, but I don't understand how the other one is wrong. I believe both convey the same meaning. Is one wrong because of syntax?

**Tags:** grammar, word

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I would simply say 大二学生 though. Use one of 初/高/大/研 plus one of 一/二/三/四...  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2020-11-12. Score: 2

The 的 in the two sentences have different functions

* [大学的] + [二年级学生] --> [of the university] + [the second-year students] = "**the second-year students** of the university" (的 here is a possessive marker that indicates the university possess the second-year students)
* [大学二年级的] + [学生]--> [of the second-year class in the university] + [students] = "**the students** of the second-year class in the university" (的 here is an adjective marker that marks 'the second-year class' as an adjectival phrase that describes the students. It can be reduced to '大学二年级学生' because unlike the possessive 的, the adjectival 的 is often omitted

Example sentence:

我們大学的二年级学生有一半是外國人 (Half of the second-year students in our university are foreigners)

小張是一名大学二年级(的)学生 (Xiao Zhang is a second-year university student)


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