有什麼好…的grammar point · tier 2 · rhetorical 有什麼好…的 (what's the point of …; no use … -ing)
Rhetorical dismissal: poses 'is there any worth in V-ing / being SV?' so the framing itself answers none, and the action or state is brushed aside as pointless.
字源 FORM what the parts do
有 opens a search for any quantity at all; 什麼 keeps the amount unnamed, a held-open slot; 好 marks worth — good for, worth doing; 的 closes the bracket and nominalizes the verb between. The four parts together wrap the verb in a question about its own worth.
故事 STORY a scene to remember it by
Hands rummage a drawer for anything worth keeping and come up holding nothing.
字源記憶法
框 · Frame
[topic] 有什麼好 [verb (+obj) / stative verb] 的
觸 · Trigger
Someone treats an action or feeling as worth doing or worth having, and you wave it off as having no point.
序 · The move
1Name the action or state being dismissed and set it as the topic.Is this something the listener treats as worth doing or worth feeling?
2Wrap it: 有什麼好 + the verb (or stative verb, +object if any) + 的.Did 好 land in front of the verb and 的 close the tail?
3Read it back as a question whose only answer is 'none'.Would answering it literally ('there is some') break the meaning? If yes, the rhetorical frame is doing its job.
例 · Examples
1結果the result都已經already確定了is settled / fixed，還still / on top of that有什麼好what is there worth討論discussing的(closes the frame)！
The result's already settled — what's there left to discuss!
好+V alone rates the doing as easy (這個字很好寫 = easy to write). 有什麼好…的 wraps that 好 in a question and flips it to worth, then dismisses it: 有什麼好寫的 = nothing worth writing. Easy-to-do vs not-worth-doing.
是…的 spotlights one true detail of a settled past event; 有什麼好…的 uses 的 to close a rhetorical frame that denies the action any worth. Foregrounding a fact vs voiding it.
✗ 這有什麼好？ → ✓ 這有什麼好討論的？ (the frame needs the verb inside and 的 to close it; bare 好 is incomplete.)
✗ 有什麼好討論嗎？ → ✓ 有什麼好討論的！ (close with 的, not 嗎; 嗎 would make it a real yes-no question and lose the dismissal.)
✗ 為什麼好討論的？ → ✓ 有什麼好討論的？ (the opener is 有什麼, not 為什麼; 為什麼 asks a reason, 有什麼 searches for worth and finds none.)
English says 'what's the point of …' or 'there's nothing to …' as a statement; learners reach for 沒有 or a flat 不 instead of leaving the 有什麼好…的 question to carry the dismissal on its own.