When are certain words required?

It seems that sometimes certain words can be included but don't need to be. My first two are "de" and "shì". Shì was introduced in 1.1, meaning "to be" and "de" in 1.2, meaning "belonging to". However, in 1.1 with the phrase "Wǒ xìng Lewis," neither were used. Would it be just as good to state it as "Wǒde xìng Lewis" or "Wǒ xìng shì Lewis", since the English translation does contain "my" and "is"? Also, 1.0 stated that "Xièxiè nǐ" would be used to say "Thank you". However "Xièxie" alone has been translated into both "Thanks" and "Thank you" in the lessons. Is there any difference whether or not "nǐ" is included?

You don't say: wode xing lewis - de used like you are thinking of marks a noun... and xing is not a noun but a verb wo xing shi lewis - this is like saying "I'm named called Tom" in English. Just delete the shi Just: Wo xing _____ Shi is used to say something x: is equivalent to y wo shi meiguoren : I am American na shi shenme? : what's that? na shi cha : that is tea! shi is not used in verbs like it is in english "I am tired" *我是累* wo shi lei : this is grammatically wrong ”我很累“ wo hen lei : this is right xiexie is thanks xiexie ni is thank you is there a difference according to which of those two you say in english? Chinese is just the same.

Thanks for the information. It helped to understand the words more clearly. Also, if you were wanting to know, "Thanks" and "Thank you" do mean exactly the same in English.

You are welcome. I wasn't wanting to know.