{"id":3321,"date":"2019-11-11T06:50:41","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T06:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/chinese-grammar\/chinese-grammar-aspect-particle-zhe-zhe\/"},"modified":"2019-11-11T06:50:41","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T06:50:41","slug":"chinese-grammar-aspect-particle-zhe-zhe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/mm\/chinese-grammar-aspect-particle-zhe-zhe\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese grammar: Aspect particle \u7740zhe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The particle \u7740 (zhe) is one way of indicating the co<\/em>ntinuous aspect in Mandarin Chinese (another common way is using the adverb \u5728 in front of verbs). You may have heard that the Chinese particle \u7740 added o<\/em>nto the end of verbs is similar to the use of -ing in English. This isn’t particularly helpful, however, because the use of \u7740 in Chinese is not nearly so frequent, and can also be quite idiomatic.<\/p>\n

Basic Structure<\/strong>
verb+\u7740<\/p>\n

Examples<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zhè ji\u0101 fàn diàn hái k\u0101i zhe.
\u8fd9 \u5bb6 \u996d\u5e97 \u8fd8 \u5f00 \u7740 \u3002<\/div>\n
This restaurant is still open.<\/div>\n

\u7740 for a co<\/em>ntinuous state<\/strong>
While it’s true that the "full progressive pattern" can make use of \u7740, this is not a pattern you’re going to want to use all the time. For example, if you want to say "I’m reading," you have these two choices:
√ \u6211 \u5728 \u770b \u4e66 \u3002(This is the natural, easy way to say it.)
× \u6211 \u6b63 \u5728 \u770b \u7740 \u4e66 \u5462 \u3002 (This seems a bit much, and isn’t very natural.)
The first one is fine, but the second one is definitely odd, and unnecessarily wordy. So there’s no need to intentio<\/em>nally co<\/em>nstruct such long, unwieldy structures. For this kind of usage (which correspo<\/em>nds pretty closely to the "-ing" in English which we mentio<\/em>ned before), you’re better off avoiding \u7740.
There are, however, other uses of \u7740 which are needed. When you’re talking a<\/em>bout "states" which don’t involve any co<\/em>ntinuous action, or actually doing anything, you’re going to want to use \u7740 instead of \u5728. Some examples:<\/p>\n

\u7740 Expressing an o<\/em>ngoing State<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Verb + \u7740<\/th>\nExplanation<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u5f00 \u7740<\/em><\/td>\n\u5f00 alone can mean "to open" or "to turn on." Adding \u7740 allows one to express that something "is open" or "is on.".<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u5173 \u7740<\/em><\/td>\n\u5173 alone can mean "to close" or "to turn off." Adding \u7740 allows one to express that something "is closed" or "is off."<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u5e26 \u7740<\/em><\/td>\n\u5e26 alone means "to carry." Adding \u7740 allows one to express that one "is carrying" or "has" something (on one’s person).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u5750 \u7740<\/em><\/td>\n\u5750 alone means "to sit." Adding \u7740 allows one to express that someone "is sitting" ("\u5728\u5750" is awkward, because it’s not a real action).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u8eba \u7740<\/em><\/td>\n\u8eba alone means "to lie on one’s back." Adding \u7740 allows one to express that someone "is lying down."<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Now let’s see these in action:<\/strong>
√ \u623f\u95f4 \u91cc \u706f \u5173 \u7740 \u3002 ("Being off" is a state, so using \u7740 is natural.)
× \u623f\u95f4 \u91cc \u706f \u5728 \u5173 \u3002 ("Being off" is not an action, so don’t use \u5728.)<\/p>\n

\u7740 for doing an action in a particular state<\/strong>
If you do an action while in a particular state, you can make use of this pattern:
verb 1+\u7740+verb2
Note that the first verb (followed by \u7740) describes the state; the second verb is the action verb. In this case, the "-ing" translation can be useful.
\u7ad9 \u7740 \u5403\u996d "standing + eat = eating while standing"<\/p>\n

Note: <\/span><\/strong>If you want to make a sentence wher both verbs are action verbs (neither is truly a state), then you don’t want this pattern, you want \u4e00\u8fb9\u22ef\u22ef\uff0c\u4e00\u8fb9\u22ef\u22ef.<\/p>\n

\u7740 Used Idiomatically<\/strong>
Certain verbs tend to take \u7740 more frequently than others, and exactly what the \u7740 is doing might not be apparent at all. It’s best to think of these usages as colloquialisms. You can even think of them as set phrases.
\u7740 Used Idiomatically<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Verb + \u7740<\/th>\nExplanation<\/th>\nExample<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u542c \u7740<\/em><\/td>\n"to listen to" (essentially the same as \u542c)<\/td>\n\u4f60 \u542c \u7740<\/em>\u3002<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u62ff \u7740<\/em><\/td>\n"to hold" (essentially the same as \u62ff)<\/td>\n\u8fd9\u4e2a \u4f60 \u62ff \u7740<\/em>\u3002<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u7b49 \u7740<\/em><\/td>\n"to wait" (essentially the same as \u7b49)<\/td>\n\u4f60\u4eec \u7ee7\u7eed \u7b49 \u7740<\/em> \uff01<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

There’s also one colloquial usage of \u7740 that’s been chosen by at least one textbook for special treatment, so we’ll cover it here as well:
verb+\u7740+\u73a9\u513f<\/p>\n

This pattern may look like that "doing an action in a particular state" pattern already covered above, but in practice it doesn’t really work that way. It just means "[Verb] for fun" or "[Verb] as a joke."<\/p>\n

Examples of this usage:<\/strong><\/p>\n

W\u01d2 bú shì rèn zh\u0113n de, w\u01d2 shì nào zhe wán ér .
\u6211 \u4e0d \u662f \u8ba4\u771f \u7684\uff0c\u6211 \u662f \u95f9 \u7740 \u73a9\u513f\u3002<\/div>\n
I’m not very serious, I like to have a lot of fun. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n