ASPecT
17.2她正在给妈妈打电话。
她正在給媽媽打電話。
Tā zhèngzài gěi māma dǎ diànhuà.
She’s phoning her mom right now.她在跟朋友唱歌。
她在跟朋友唱歌。
Tā zài gēn péngyou chàng gē.
She’s singing with friends.
To negate sentences with progressive aspect, Beijing Mandarin speakers use 没/沒(有) méi(yǒu):他们没在学中文。
他們沒在學中文。
Tāmen méi zài xué Zhōngwén.
They are not studying Chinese.
Speakers from other Mandarin-speaking regions may also negate these sentences with 不 bù.17.2.2 The durative aspect suffix 着/著 zhe
The durative aspect suffix 着/著 zhe emphasizes the durative nature of the action as an
unchanging, ongoing situation.
着/著 zhe may occur as a suffix for open-ended action such as 吃 chī ‘eat,’ 说/說 shuō ‘speak,’
睡 shuì ‘sleep,’ 洗 xǐ ‘bath,’ 看 kàn ‘look at, read,’ and 写/寫 xiě ‘write.’ When used with
open-ended action verbs, it focuses on the ongoing nature of the action.他们说着话呢。
他們說著話呢。
Tāmen shuō zhe huà ne.
They are (in the middle of the action of) speaking.
他们睡着觉呢。
他們睡著覺呢。
Tāmen shuì zhe jiào ne.
They are (in the middle of the action of ) sleeping.她哭着呢。
她哭著呢。
Tā kūzhe ne.
She’s (in the middle of the action of) crying.
着/著 zhe can also be used as a suffix for change-of-state placement verbs such as 站 zhàn
‘stand,’ 坐 zuò ‘sit,’ 停 tíng ‘stop,’ 掛 guà ‘hang,’ 穿 chuān ‘put on.’ When used with change-
of-state action verbs, the verb refers to the resulting state, and not to the action itself:她穿着高跟鞋。
她穿著高跟鞋。
Tā chuānzhe gāogēnxié.
She is wearing (she is in) high-heeled shoes.
孩子都在屋子里坐着。
孩子都在屋子裡坐著。
Háizi dōu zài wūzi li zuòzhe.
The children are all sitting in the room.墙上挂着一张画儿。
牆上掛著一張畫兒。
Qiángshàng guàzhe yī zhāng huàr.
There is a painting hanging on the wall.