地
de
地 is the outfit you put on the verb
The picture The spot where you dress the verb. What is being done stays the same; only how it looks changes. 地 stands before the verb and dresses it; 得 stands after and shows the result. 慢慢地走 is how the walking looks, 走得很慢 is how it turned out.
Where the picture shows up in 地
-
dressed in slowness
他慢慢地走进来。
tā mànmàn de zǒu jìnlái
He walked in slowly.
Each foot coming in lands heel first and takes its time reaching the floor.
-
dressed in care
请认真地看一遍。
qǐng rènzhēn de kàn yí biàn
Please read it through carefully.
A finger walks down the page line by line and the eyes follow it.
-
dressed in a small voice
她小声地说了一句。
tā xiǎoshēng de shuō le yí jù
She said one thing quietly.
A hand goes up beside the mouth and the body leans in close to the other person's ear.
-
dressed in cheer
大家开心地笑了。
dàjiā kāixīn de xiào le
Everyone laughed happily.
Every face around the table opens up at once, shoulders shaking with it.
-
dressed in one line at a time
他一句一句地翻译。
tā yí jù yí jù de fānyì
He translates it sentence by sentence.
One line is read, one line is written on the sheet beside it, and the hand drops to the next line.
地 goes before the verb and dresses it; 得 goes after and shows the result. Different seats entirely.
All of it in one picture
The feet coming in are dressed in slowness, the reading finger in care. The leaning body is dressed in a small voice, the shaking shoulders in cheer, the hand moving down the page in one line at a time. Walking, reading, speaking, laughing, translating: the deed stays exactly what it was, and only its look changes. That is all the word before 地 does. It never touches what is done, only what the doing looks like.