▎在, zài, (Vs), Progressive, On-going Actions, at Ving, is in the middle of V＋ing (3)

 

Function 在 before a VP indicates an ongoing activity taking place at the present (default) or at a given time.

1 李老師在上課。

Lǐ lǎoshī zài shàngkè.

Teacher Li is in class right now.

2 陳先生在修理他的腳踏車。

Chén xiānshēng zài xiūlǐ tā de jiǎotàchē.

Mr. Chen is fixing his bike.

3 昨天下午五點我在聽演講。

Zuótiān xiàwǔ wǔdiǎn wǒ zài tīng yǎnjiǎng.

I was listening to a talk at 5:00 in the afternoon yesterday.

 

Structures

Negation：Negation always proceeds 在, e.g.,

進來吧！他不在睡覺。

Jìnlái ba! Tā bú zài shuìjiào.

Come in! He is not sleeping.

Note that 不是 negation is more common than 不.

1 他不是在看書。他在看籃球比賽。

Tā búshì zài kànshū. Tā zài kàn lánqiú bǐsài.

He is not reading. He is watching a basketball game.

2 我不是在照相。我的手機不能照相。

Wǒ búshì zài zhàoxiàng. Wǒ de shǒujī bù néng zhàoxiàng.

I am not taking a picture. My cellphone can’t take photos.

Questions：

1 他們老師不在上課嗎？

Tāmen lǎoshī bú zài shàngkè ma?

Is their teacher not in class now?

2 他們在打籃球嗎？

Tāmen zài dǎ lánqiú ma?

Are they playing the basketball ?

3 他們是不是又在滑手機？

Tāmen shìbúshì yòu zài huá shǒujī?

Are they playing with their phones again?

 

Usage Only action verbs can be used with the 在 structure. State verbs cannot go with 在zài. It is not correct to say ＊手機在貴 ＊shǒujī zài guì. ＊Phones are being expensive.