第二十三天

[nnozomi]

在 to show an action in progress (be doing something)
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Expressing_actions_in_progress_with_%22zai%22

Since we've been discussing 在 in its other forms anyway! Constructive confusion.

Guardian:
爆米花呀。我还以为你们在研究长生晷呢。(It's popcorn! I thought you guys were researching the Longevity Dial.)
你到底有没有在听我说话？(Are you listening to me or not?)
但愿你知道你自己在做什么。(I hope you [want you to] know what it is you're doing.) Edited to correct my error, thank you presumenothing!

My practice:
在公园他们在打棒球。
他在喝今天第三杯咖啡。
如果你不在学习，帮我一个忙。

(comment replies shortly)

Comments

[presumenothing]

我在等家人准备好出去吃早餐。麦当劳我来咯～～～

Also I'd probably use 读书 instead of 学习 in that last one? 学习 feels more long-term pursuit of studies, vs a more immediate/in-the-moment action (读书，复习，做功课 etc) which would fit better here.

[nnozomi]

Also I'd probably use 读书 instead of 学习 in that last one?
oh my god, I have made this exact correction in English to the kids I teach, so many times, viz "studying" versus "learning." It hadn't clicked in Chinese. Thank you!

[presumenothing]

XD that'll definitely make it easier to remember then! One of those annoying not-apparent-from-the-dictionary things…

[grayswandir]

Practice:

別吵，他們在睡覺。
我正在给你打电话。
你真的还在等我？

[nnozomi]

你真的还在等我？
I think this is a line from our nonexistent drama! Maybe a letter from the front to a sweetheart waiting at home?

[trobadora]

很晚了，但我还在工作。 (Ugh.)

[nnozomi]

辛苦了 :( 希望你可以快休息。

[presumenothing]

Coming back to this because I just noticed while scrolling – 但愿 actually means "to hope/wish" despite what the literal meaning might look like! So more of "I can only hope you know what you're doing" in this context.

[nnozomi]

Thank you! I have so many false assumptions, some of them Japanese-informed and others just language-learner hubris, lol. 但愿, will remember!

[presumenothing]

Not sure whether it'll help with remembering, but I think 但愿 most famously occurs in "但愿人长久，千里共婵娟" aka the final two lines from Su Shi's poem 水调歌头 (Prelude to the melody of water, apparently), which most people including me probably know via in its even-more-famous song adaptation (literally titled 但愿人长久) that always crops up around the Mid-Autumn Festival. As with all poetry it's an ass to translate definitively, but here's a bunch of English translations – the final pair of long-life-related lines in each should give an idea of the vibes.

[trobadora]

Oh look, it's a song I know! Thank you for linking the translations, that is very helpful. :D

[presumenothing]

It's a lovely song! And I feel like at this point any poems I know (that weren't part of the mandatory-memorisation-for-school set) are only via music: this, and 摸鱼儿·雁丘词 aka Zhou Shen's 情是何物， and 如梦令 aka Hu Xia/Yisa Yu's 知否知否… the one form of literature I might actually consume, haha.