\tYou may have learned that \u5728 (zài) and \u6b63\u5728 (zhèngzài) can be used before verbs to express that an action is ongoing or in progress. They are used to create the Mandarin equivalent of present continuous in English. But that pattern is actually a part of a longer, fuller pattern. It's rarely used in its full form, but bits and pieces of it are frequently used in everyday speech, so it's important to know the full form, even if you don't use it regularly yourself.<\/p>\n
\tStructure <\/strong> \t<\/p>\n \tIt's important to remember that virtually every part of the above pattern is optional, so you're going to see all sorts of variations of it (and rarely the full form). The most common variation is just the "\u5728 + V" pattern that you probably already learned long ago. Another common variation is "\u6b63 + V" pattern.<\/p>\n \tExamples<\/strong>
\tSome examples using the verb phrase \u770b\u62a5\u7eb8:
\t\u5979 \u5728 \u770b \u62a5\u7eb8\u3002T\u0101 zài kàn bào zh\u01d0 \u3002
\t\u5979 \u6b63\u5728 \u770b \u62a5\u7eb8\u3002T\u0101 zhèn\u0261 zài kàn bào zh\u01d0 \u3002
\t\u5979 \u6b63 \u770b \u62a5\u7eb8 \u5462\u3002T\u0101 zhèn\u0261 kàn bào zh\u01d0 ne \u3002
\t\u5979 \u6b63 \u770b \u7740 \u62a5\u7eb8 \u5462\u3002T\u0101 zhèn\u0261 kàn zhe bào zh\u01d0 ne \u3002
\tAll these sentences mean "She is reading the newspaper."<\/p>\n