What's the grammatical structure for "<subject> <verbs> like a <noun>" style simile in Chinese?

Question

I am fond of the simile structure "I eat like a wolf" or "The light flickered like a candle" in English. I never know how to express these thoughts in Chinese though, even if I know the underlying words. How do I express this style of simile in Chinese?

Answer 1

The simplest way is to build a structure like this:

(subject) 我 I + (simile) 像狼一样 like a wolf + (verb) 吃 eat .

However, it sounds better with an object at the end, such as: 我像狼一样吃肉 (I eat meat like a wolf).

The structure “像（xiang4, to be like, resemble）+ <noun> + 一样 (yi1yang4, the same, alike, as...as...)” literally translates to "the same as a ---".

Here are some slight variations: 1- adjectival; Red like a rose: 像玫瑰花一样红 （ the same red as a rose）

2- comparative using as__as a__; As big as a horse: 和马一样大（the same big [compared] with a horse）

3- The same situation as his: 跟他的情况一样 （the same as [with] his situation）。

和 (he2) and 跟（gen1）are *almost* interchangeable, and can mean "and" or "with".

Answer 2

Let’s pick an example to explain what you listed above: <subject> <verbs> like a <noun>. In the following sentence “脸红像(一个)苹果”, each character matches a part of speech. “脸” is a noun and functions as the subject, “红” is a verb and functions as the predicate and “苹果” is a noun and acts as the object. Since “一个” doesn’t affect the meaning and grammar of the sentence, we just skip it.

As we can see, the sentence “脸红像(一个)苹果” is of grammatical error. There are two verbs “红””像” in the sentence, which make it look like there are two predicates and turn into serial-verb sentence. In serial-verb sentence, both of the verbs indicate the actions executed by the subject. While in the above sentence, “像(一个)苹果” doesn’t function as a predicate but describes how the face flushes. In other words, “像(一个)苹果” functions as the complement. In Chinese, “得” is a typical symbol of complement. Therefore, we add a “得” between “红” and “像(一个)苹果”: 脸红得像(一个)苹果. Other examples are: 湖水清(澈)得像(一块)水晶( The lake is clear as a crystal.), 笑容美(灿烂)得像(一片)云霞 (The smile is as beautiful as clouds.)。

Can we remove “得” in some specific contexts? Yes. When it is in a poem or poetic sentence, we often leave “得” out. So it’s like: 湖水清澈如(一块)水晶, 笑容灿烂像(一片)云霞.