<p>You got it: “starting from relatively famous schools”. This is not great written Chinese tho, it's more like spoken Chinese written down - I wouldn't read too much into it. You already know what it should be, you wrote it above: 从比较有名的开始. 有名的 is referring to the schools here.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>So is it OK to omit the preposition in these cases? Or grammatically not correct but nonetheless commonly used, especially in these blog posts? It is still a bit difficult to make a transition from a rigorous textbook Chinese to a live sentence used on the Web... -@Blaszard</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Yeah, especially when Chinese makes such a large distinction between written (书面语) and oral (口语) language. Day-to-day speech is basically a free for all. Sometimes you'll even hear words like 其实 or 而且 at the end of sentences almost like an after thought. As for your 从 preposition here, yeah you can drop it here, but in written language it is always better to keep it.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-31T00:10:38.900Z
2018-01-31T00:10:38.900Z
Mou某
<p>In the following sentence (from <a href="http://www.xineurope.com/thread-1371549-1-1.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.xineurope.com/thread-1371549-1-1.html</a>):</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>最近正在找语言学校，发现好多人也在找，正好把信息整理出来，欢迎补充
  比较有名的开始</p>
</blockquote>

<p>In the last sentence, the meaning is clear from the context, which means “starting from relatively famous schools”.</p>

<p>However, I don’t understand it grammatically. If the 的 means “of” and modify 开始 here, then it means something like “relatively famous schools’ start”, which doesn’t make sense. Instead, it should be something like 从比较有名的开始.</p>

<p>Or possibly does the 的 modify 语言学校 and is the 语言学校 omitted here? In that case it makes more sense, but then is it OK to also omit some prepositions, such as 从 (or something others like 以)?</p>

<p>I’m not sure if I understand it grammatically correctly, but also don’t understand when it is OK to omit the preposition (if it is actually omitted).</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-30T15:37:48.763Z
@user3306356 So is it OK to omit the preposition in these cases? Or grammatically not correct but nonetheless commonly used, especially in these blog posts? It is still a bit difficult to make a transition from a rigorous textbook Chinese to a live sentence used on the Web...
Blaszard
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-31T00:08:55.553Z
@user3306356 Do you mind writing it as an answer?
Blaszard
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-31T09:51:34.140Z
To be honest with you, even ME can't quite understand what's the last sentence means, and I "AM" Chinese!!! So... don't pull all your hair out over it! It's definitely NOT worth it!
Pikachu620
<preposition>
The grammatical construction of 比较有名的开始
# The grammatical construction of 比较有名的开始

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-01-30)

In the following sentence (from <http://www.xineurope.com/thread-1371549-1-1.html>):

> 最近正在找语言学校，发现好多人也在找，正好把信息整理出来，欢迎补充
> 比较有名的开始

In the last sentence, the meaning is clear from the context, which means “starting from relatively famous schools”.

However, I don’t understand it grammatically. If the 的 means “of” and modify 开始 here, then it means something like “relatively famous schools’ start”, which doesn’t make sense. Instead, it should be something like 从比较有名的开始.

Or possibly does the 的 modify 语言学校 and is the 语言学校 omitted here? In that case it makes more sense, but then is it OK to also omit some prepositions, such as 从 (or something others like 以)?

I’m not sure if I understand it grammatically correctly, but also don’t understand when it is OK to omit the preposition (if it is actually omitted).

**Tags:** preposition

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: @user3306356 So is it OK to omit the preposition in these cases? Or grammatically not correct but nonetheless commonly used, especially in these blog posts? It is still a bit difficult to make a transition from a rigorous textbook Chinese to a live sentence used on the Web...  
> **username_0**: @user3306356 Do you mind writing it as an answer?  
> **username_1**: To be honest with you, even ME can't quite understand what's the last sentence means, and I "AM" Chinese!!! So... don't pull all your hair out over it! It's definitely NOT worth it!  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-01-31. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

You got it: “starting from relatively famous schools”. This is not great written Chinese tho, it's more like spoken Chinese written down - I wouldn't read too much into it. You already know what it should be, you wrote it above: 从比较有名的开始. 有名的 is referring to the schools here.

> So is it OK to omit the preposition in these cases? Or grammatically not correct but nonetheless commonly used, especially in these blog posts? It is still a bit difficult to make a transition from a rigorous textbook Chinese to a live sentence used on the Web... -@username_0

Yeah, especially when Chinese makes such a large distinction between written (书面语) and oral (口语) language. Day-to-day speech is basically a free for all. Sometimes you'll even hear words like 其实 or 而且 at the end of sentences almost like an after thought. As for your 从 preposition here, yeah you can drop it here, but in written language it is always better to keep it.


---

