Lesson 4

Video and text
Listening and speaking
Vocabulary
Grammar exercises
Characters
Multiple choice

Question: Say to your friend that Xiao Ding always reads in the canteen.

Hint 1   在 is used
Hint 2   The 在 clause is placed before the main verb "read"
Answer  小 丁 总 是 在 食 堂 看 书 。 Listen
Comments  在 zài is a co-verb here. It means to locate in, on or at a place. Many co-verbs are verbs in Chinese. Sequence is very important in Chinese when it comes to describing actions. The first action should come first. For example, 小 丁在 食 堂 看 书 Xiăo Dīng  zài shítáng kàn shū lit. Xiao Ding is in canteen reading book. As you can see from the above examples, the co-verb 在 zài is followed by a noun 食 堂 shítáng to form a co-verb clause. The order sequence is indicated: one has to be in the canteen before reading the book.
Index