Help about 着 ...

gesang

March 17, 2008, 09:30 PM posted in General Discussion

hi there,

I am still hoping to get some advice how to handle this 着... I read it as a particle used with verbs many times lately. i read its something compareable to -ing form in english, but how do i decide to use it and when to use it in chinese? i couldnt make out a pattern there...thanks, gesang

auntie68

March 17, 2008, 11:44 PM

Hi gesang. See whether this helps in any way: http://chinesepod.com/connections/viewpost/calkins/connect/Present+Continuous+Tense+%3F As usual, my answers are very long-winded. Good luck!

gesang

March 18, 2008, 05:34 AM

thanks auntie68, that is much to study for tonight... its now 6.20am here and i just had to check my conversation before leaving for work...cpod addicted-first state i guess ;-), gesang

rich

March 18, 2008, 11:44 AM

I've been learning a lot about 着 this past week, really getting into the do's and don'ts of it, how it is different than 正在 (continuous action vs. continuous state), and its uses, etc. I hope to post more about it later when I have time, but gotta run off to class right now. Stay tuned...

rich

March 18, 2008, 09:59 PM

I'll do a quick thing about 着 zhe: 着 in English is like +ing, yet you must realize it is the continuous STATE of doing something, not the continuous ACTION of doing something. I know this is confusing because I just had to watch my 6 newbie classmates experience this for the first time last week. Best way to describe this is using the verb 穿 chuan1, to wear/to put on. For example, if I say: 穿衣服吧 (chuan1 yi1fu ba) Means: PUT ON (your) clothes That is an action. How do you say "He is puttING on clothes"? Answer: 他(正)在穿衣服(呢)。 (ta1 zheng4zai4 chuan1 yi1fu ne) ( 正 and 呢 are optional. 正 makes it more formal, 呢 softens the tone) Ok, so that is how you do continuous ACTION, with (正)在. But now how do we say "He is wearing a blue shirt." verses "He is putting on a blue shirt."?　”putting on" is action, "wearing" is a state. So that is where we need to use 着: 他穿着蓝衬衫 (ta1 chuan1zhe lan2 chen4shan1) That is one of the main uses 着. The other is talking about the ACTION of doing something while in the STATE of doing another. For example: I watched TV while lying down. Lying (躺 tang3) is the STATE you were in while doing the ACTION of watching TV: 我躺着看了电视。 (wo3 tang3zhe kan4 le dian4shi4) More examples: Smiling I said.... 我笑着说…… Eating while watching TV... 看着电视在吃饭 In the above example, the state is watching the TV, that is what state I was in when I ate. You could change it and say "Watching TV while eating", 吃着饭在看电视 which puts a stress on the action of watching TV in the state of eating... it all depends what happened (the action) while something was going on (the state). You could think of 着 getting rid of the whole "的时候“ (While) phrase, so in stead of: While I was eating, I was watching TV -> eating(zhe) I was watching TV. Hope that makes sense. Wrote this quickly. There is more to talk about and more example I have on paper... will write them up soon.