When foreign students come across the adjectives like 红and 通红 in the Mandarin learning courses, they may be confused at the usage of the words. The word 红 is an adjective while the word 通红is a state adjective. The words like 通红,雪白,冰凉，笔直，蜡黄,绿油油,灰蒙蒙,白不呲咧 and 黑咕隆咚 look like the same to the general adjectives. But when the words are analyzed from the grammatical sense, they are different from the general adjectives. The general adjectives refer to the quality or feature of a person or an event while the state adjectives indicate the condition or the state of a person or an event. Thus, these words are called the state adjectives in the Chinese learning.

There are different kinds of state adjectives in the Chinese learning. The first form of the state adjectives falls into the pattern of AA. For example, the words 纷纷,皑皑,累累fall into such category. The second form falls into the pattern of AB. The words like 雪白,银白,金黄,漆黑,煞白,冰凉,乌黑,笔直,通红and 碧绿 fit in the pattern. The third form falls into the pattern of ABB. The words like 黑乎乎,慢腾腾,红通通,绿油油 and 沉甸甸 are in the third form. The fourth form falls into the category of AABB. The words like 弯弯曲曲and 病病歪歪 are fit in the category.

Then what is the difference between 红 and 通红? Although the two words are all referred to the color of red and they have similar meaning, they differ in the grammatical functions. The first point is that 红can be modified by the words 不and 很, but the word 通红 can not be collocated with the words 不and 很. Thus, one can not make the expression like不红and 很红 but one can not make the expression like 不通红and 很通红.

The second point is that 红can be collocated with the complement while the word can not be collocated with the complement. For example, one can make the expression like 红极了 and 红得很. But if one learns the word 通红, one can not make the expression like 通红极了and 通红得很. The third point is that 红and 通红can be acted as the role of complement. The word 红can be added by the word 得 or not when it is used as complement. But if the word 通红is used as complement, the word 得must be added in the following. For example, one can make the expression like 染红or 染得红. But the expression like 染通红 and 染得通红 should be added the word 得. The students should be careful with the use of the words when they go to school to study Mandarin.

From the analysis above, the words 红and 通红are not in the same category. The word 红is an adjective while the word 通红is a state adjective.