prefix used before the surname of a person or a numeral indicating the order of birth of the children in a family or to indicate affection or familiarity, old (of people), venerable (person), experienced, of long standing, always, all the time, of the past, very, outdated, (of meat etc) tough
of; ~'s (possessive particle), (used after an attribute when it modifies a noun), (used at the end of a declarative sentence for emphasis), (used after a noun, verb or adjective to form a nominal expression, as in 皮革的[pi2 ge2 de5] "one made of leather" or 跑堂兒的|跑堂儿的[pao3 tang2 r5 de5] "a waiter (literally, one who runs back and forth in a restaurant)" or 新的[xin1 de5] "new one"), also pr. [di4] or [di5] in poetry and songs