A state is so intense it feels past bearing, and you want it pinned at that unbearable extreme.
序 · The move
1pick the state word (the adjective naming the feeling or quality)is it a state (冷, 累, 餓, 痛), not an action?
2hinge it on with 得, then hang 要命 behind the 得得 sits between the adjective and 要命, with nothing else pushed in?
3read it as the state taken to the unbearable extreme, not literal danger to lifedoes the adjective still name what is extreme, 得要命 only amplifying it?
例 · Examples
1就算even if, even granting出太陽the sun comes out，天氣還是still, all the same冷cold (the state named)得要命to the unbearable extreme — 'to death'。
Even when the sun comes out, the weather is still bitterly, unbearably cold.
Vs死了 fuses 死了 straight onto the adjective, no hinge (累死了); Vs得要命 keeps the 得 hinge between adjective and booster (累得要命). 死了 clamps on bare; 要命 always rides behind 得.
plain 得 opens an open verdict that can go either way — fast or slow, well or badly (跑得很快, 寫得不好). 得要命 is a fixed extreme tail: it only maxes the state out, never rates it neutrally.
all are post-adjective extreme tails; 得要命 carries the 'unbearable, to death' colouring of 命 (a strong, colloquial complaint), where 極了 / 得很 are plainer boosts. Same slot behind the quality, different intensity flavour.
dropping the 得: 冷要命 → 冷得要命
hanging it on an action verb: 他跑得要命 → 他累得要命 (要命 boosts a state, not the speed of an act)
reading it as literal danger: 痛得要命 → 痛 pushed to the unbearable extreme, not actually life-threatening
English stacks the intensifier in front of the adjective (unbearably cold, deathly tired); learners reach for 很/非常 up front and never let 得要命 ride behind the quality, or they glue 要命 on without the 得.