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- "他在看书。"
"他在看书。"
Translation:He is reading a book.
28 Comments
I seem to remember that in previous lessons the word "book" was left out of the translation. "He is reading" should be accepted, right?
532
Native speaker here (just here to practice my reading). It really should be accepted along with "He is studying" because we in China use it for both meanings.
Maybe they thought it was too ambiguous without saying that it was a book. I mean the sentence could also mean that he is looking, right?
“在” means "正在“. It is the marker of progressive tense. "在看书" means "is reading a book".
Those little grammar nuggets in the comments are gold.
"他看书" then means "He reads books", in a general sense. Makes a lot more sense now.
It can be, in the right context, but "在" does clarify the progressive aspect.
- 101
A translation proposed by Duolingo is "he is reading a book". Is it necessarly a book, or can this phrase be used if he was reading something else (like a journal)?
- 1261
书 does mean book specifically. There are more precise words for journals/diaries etc. 看书 can also mean studying though. 看 is a verb also used to watch things such as films and to look at something. I think of it more as "to consume with one's eyes" instead of read/watch. Unless you already mentioned a book I'm not sure if in a real conversation it would be clear what he was doing without using 书
In English, “he is reading” would imply a book (as opposed to, say, a newspaper) but that answer isn’t accepted.
- 456
No: in English, "he is reading" in no way implies he is reading a book; rather, a book is just one of many things he could be reading.
In fact, in English, "reading" also applies to activities that have nothing to do with words on a page: a doctor "reads" your temperature, a fortuneteller "reads" your future, a psychic "reads" your mind, poker players "read" their opponents' betting patterns and reactions.
So I know 他在看书 is supposed to be he is reading a book in English, but mine said the answer was "they will be back in 1 hour". Major glitch that devs might want to fix lol
In fact they both mean "read(ing) a book" or "read(ing) books", though "读书" is also often used to mean "study".
(I believe "看书" can also be used to mean "study", but in a more limited sense, as in to be currently sitting at one's desk and reading one's books, but I'll have to defer to native Chinese speakers on this point.)
No. "在" means the activity is happening right at the time when the sentence is being said.
If you are referring to a specific book, you give the title or other identifying feature. Or, you could say he is reading "that" book. 他在看那本书。
I hate the translations! "He is reading a book right now" is perfectly correct!
That translation would mean he is STUDYING the book. not reading it for fun or leassure
