请你帮我的忙。

[Alhazred]

我的语法书里有这个句子我看不懂 ：

踏实，刻苦是应该受到鼓励的。

踏实和刻苦是名字吗？我不想可是。。。

Does the part between 是。。。的 mean "should be encouraged" ?

[roddy]

They're acting as nouns here. I'll let the linguists fight over whether they are or not

Does the part between 是。。。的 mean "should be encouraged" ?

Yes.

Literally,

Dependability / , / hardwork / are/ should / recieve / encouragement/ de

or

Dependability and hardwork should be encouraged.

Hope this helps.

[HashiriKata]

Roddy is right (No fight, regrettably ).

All substantial words in Chinese can function as nouns in the right contexts/ structures.

I can add that 是。。。的 here encloses the part which the speaker wants to draw the hearer's attention to, because this part is said in contrast to some assumption to the contrary in the context where the sentence is spoken.

[skylee]

Have you tried a dictionary?

踏實 = being steadfast, practical, pragmatic,

刻苦 = hard-working

Being steadfast/practical/pragmatic and hardworking (are qualities that) should be encouraged.

[in_lab]

踏實 = being steadfast, practical, pragmatic

Pragmatic and practical mean almost the same thing, but "steadfast" is quite different from "pragmatic." Is the confusion about the meaning of this word simply because the sentence lacks context?

[Alhazred]

Thanks everyone for your help.

Yes, I tried a dictionary, found 刻苦 but not 踏实, this is why I thought they might be names...

Edit: Names are a real problem for me, actually, I have often spent time trying to figure out a word only to end understanding it was just a name. I guess I must wait for my chinese to grow better to immediately recognise names as such because I understand correctly the structure of the sentence and/or grow more accustomed to chinese names.