哈囉，大家好！ 哈啰，大家好！
I’m Grace.
In Chinese, to express something ongoing,
we can use 在 before a verb or 著 after it.
Like 他在跳舞 or 他跳著舞 (he is dancing)
Although both of them can indicate
an action is ongoing,
they’re actually used quite differently.
Stay tuned to find out their differences
in this video.
Also, I’ve included some exercises at the end
for you to practice what you’ve learned.
The first thing to remember is that
in this usage 在 is an adverb,
so it’s added before a verb,
like 我在聽音樂 (I’m listening to music)
and 著 is a suffix that is attached to a verb,
so you can say 我聽著音樂 (I’m listening to music)
Let’s first talk about when to use 在
When you want to express an action in progress,
often we’ll use 在.
For example,
when you want to say
"I'm studying Chinese"
you’re expressing that
you’re currently engaging in this activity,
so you should use 在 and say
"我在學中文" (I'm studying Chinese.)
Another example,
if someone asks what you were doing last night,
you can say
“我昨天晚上在看電視" (I was watching TV last night.)
because you want to indicate
what you were doing at that moment.
In this case, we wouldn’t say
“我昨天晚上看著電視”
because 著 has its own special use.
Unlike 在, which is used to
make a statement of something ongoing,
著 is usually used to make a description
when you want to portray something,
so it’s normally not the main focus of
what you’re saying,
it’s the background information.
For example,
When you want to describe your surroundings,
you can use this structure:
Here are some example sentences:
You can also use 著 to describe a person,
for example,
If you want to know
why I duplicate adjectives here,
check out this video!
You can also use 著
to describe what you’re wearing
when you first meet with someone:
In this case,
if you use 在,
people would think you’re putting on your clothes.
Because 在 emphasizes that
an action is ongoing,
when you say “我在穿衣服”
people would think you’re putting your clothes on;
However, 著 focuses more on
describing the state of something or someone,
so “我穿著衣服” is usually interpreted as
you being in the state of wearing clothes.
You already have your clothes on.
Since 著 is used to give background information
and sets the scene for the main action or event,
it can also be used in this structure:
Here V1 + 著 is used to add additional information
to describe what state the subject is in
when doing the main action (V2),
for example,
Here “躺著” is to express that
when the subject is doing the main action “reading”,
he’s in the state of lying down.
Another example,
Here the main action the sister does
is talking about what happened at school
and “笑著” is to indicate that while doing that,
she was in the state of smiling.
Alright, now let’s review
the difference between 在 and 著.
And then we’ll do some practices.
Both 在 and 著 can be used to indicate that
an action or situation is ongoing.
However, 在 is used more commonly
when you simply want to express something ongoing.
Whereas 著 is used to describe
the state of something or someone,
as background information for the main story or action.
Because of their different usage,
在 is more commonly used in speaking,
and the descriptive 著 is more often used in writing,
as we often need to portray the scene for our story.
Now let’s do some practice.
Think about whether you should use 在 or 著
in the following situations.
Feel free to write your answers
in the comment section of this video.
You can find the answers in the comments below.
I hope you found today’s video helpful.
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check out my Instagram @gracemandarin
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