“又”and “再” as adverbs

The Difference between “又”and “再”
as adverbs highlighting the repetitive nature of an action

Youxuan Wang

2012-01-20

又

拼音：yòu

部首：又；
笔顺：54

再

拼音：zài

部首：冂；
笔顺：125211

General points:

(1)   They are both adverbs.

(2)   As adverbs, they always appear before the verb that they are employed to modify.

(3)   They are both used to emphasise the repetitive nature of the action described by the verb.

(4)   If “又” is used, the repetition is being happening, or has already happened.

(5)   If “再” is used, the repetition has not yet happened but will happen in the future. Note that the idea of ‘future’ refers to a time in relation to the moment when the sentence is spoken, not in relation to the moment when the sentence is read.

Discussions

Question 01: In the following sentence, the word again occurs twice. How do we translate this word into Chinese?

'You came here yesterday. Why do you come and bother us again today? I'm pretty busy at the moment. Come back again tomorrow, please.'

Answer:

“你昨天已经来过了。为什么今天又来麻烦我？我这会儿挺忙的。请明天再来吧。”

Nǐ zuótiān yǐjīng láiguò le. Wéishénme jīntiān yòulái fán wǒ? Wǒ zhèhuǐ'ér tǐngmángde. Qǐng míngtiān zàilái ba.

Question 02: In the following scenario, how does the husband (丈夫 zhàngfu) justify the use of the word “再” ?

妻子：你在吴明家怎么呆那么长时间啊？看，都12点多了。

Qīzi: nǐ zài Wúmíng jiā zěnme dāi nàme chángshíjiān a? Kàn, dōu shí'èr diǎn duō le。

Wife: Why did you stay in Wu Ming's house for so long? Look, it's past midnight.

丈夫：10点的时候我要走。吴明说‘再坐会儿。忙什么？’

Zhàngfu: shídiǎn de shíhòu, wǒ yàozǒu。Wú Míng shuō, 'zài zuò yīhuǐ'ér。Máng shénme?

Husband: I was about to leave there at 10, but Wu Ming said, 'Stay a little longer. Why do you rush to go?'

Exercises:

1. Translate the following sentences into Chinese:

01                It snowed last week. It’s snowing again.

02                The fox came to my backyard (后院) yesterday morning, and it is coming back again. I believe it will come back again tomorrow.

03                I have already drunk to two pints of bitter, but my friend John asked me to drink two more pints.  That was why I got drunk (喝醉了).

04                I’ve run two miles (英里), but I don’t want to stop here. I want to run another three miles.

05                Father: You’ll need some money as you’re going abroad for a training course (培训课). I give you 3,000 pounds. Is that enough?

Son: Dad, I know 3,000 pounds is a lot of money, but it’s probably not enough for the training course in New York. Could I ask for just 500 pounds more? I know I am using your money again.

Father: That’s O.K., my child. We are making investments in education (投资教育).

2. Translate the following sentences into English:

01                 张东来电话的时候，你不在。我要他一会儿再来。

02                 电话铃响了，张东又来电话了。

03                 今天下午你们跟政法大学代表队踢足球比赛，你们队又输了吧？

04                 我男朋友上个星期没有给我打电话，这个星期又没有打。他一定是太忙了。

05                 我昨天已经去电影院看了那部电影。今天不想再去看了。

06                 我今年过生日时，哥哥又给了我很多礼品。

07                 我学习汉语已经学了一年。再用一年的时间，我的汉语就会非常地流利了。

08                 我可以再向你问一个问题吗？

09                 阿梅昨天在图书馆读书，今天她又去图书馆看书去了。

10                 有借有还，再借不难。