I would like to give to this question my small contribution (first of all, excuse me for my poor english): I fully understand why you asked this question. In chinese, in sentences with the structure "to be + adjective", the adjective plays at the same time the role of adjective and verb!!. In fact, some grammars use the expression "adjectival verb" when the adjective plays the role of adjective and verb at the same time. So, if you want to say "I'm tired", it would be enough to say, in theory, "wo3lei4". But chinese people usually don't say just the adjective, specially if it is composed of just one syllabe, as in the example. So, they would add "hen3" (most times not really meaning "very", but just having a neutral value) and that makes it clear that the adjective is playing the role of a verb. So, if a chinese person says: wo3 hen3 lei4, the right translation to english would be, most times: "I'm tired". If he/she wanted to say "I'm VERY/REALLY tired", he/she would say: "Wo3 fei1chang2 lei4" or "wo3 zhen1de hen3 lei4". So, to sum up, 1) chinese adjectives can function as verbs, and in these cases, the translation would be "to be + adjective". 2) hen3 (very) usually precedes these "adjectival verbs" without any intensifying value, and in most cases one could omit it when translating to english.

很 does not mean "to be." It means: "very". 好 is a verbal, and means: "to be well". I think you can work it out.

很：very. adv. e.g. 很大 / 很小 / 很高 / 很好 好：good. adj e.g. 好人 / 好事 / 好运气 ------------------------------------------ BTW: "好" sometimes also means "very", can be used as almost the same as "很". e.g. 好大 / 好小 / 好高 / 好好 Usually Shanghainese like to use "老" instead of "很". e.g. 老大 / 老小 / 老高 / 老好老好了... But some people, located in Northeast of China, prefer to use "贼" instead of "很". e.g. 这个地方贼好了！

很 does not mean "to be." It means: "very". 好is an adj. 但是在汉语中，很多时候be被省略了。如You are beautiful.=你很漂亮，而不说你是漂亮的。 I'm tired today=我今天很累，而不说我今天是累的。 如果You are a beautiful girl=你是个漂亮的女孩，而不是你很漂亮的女孩。 也就是说当be+adj是汉语中“是”字省略，但be+adj+n时“是”字不能省略。

很=very， adv, 是=to be example： 我是学生。I am student. 我很喜欢你。 I like you very much. 当你要把“很”和“是”用在一个句子里，你就应该加个形容词： 你是个很聪明的人。 You are a very intelligent person. 欢迎学习中文 加油哦~~~ :)