"他们想明天看电影。"
Translation:They want to watch a movie tomorrow.
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The 想 is before the time marker since it is saying that currently, it is their desire to watch movies tomorrow. The sentence you wrote while not necessarily incorrect implies that the desire to watch movies is happening tomorrow (not necessarily today)
This really makes no sense. The desire to watch the movie is always happening tomorrow no matter the position of the 想, so still don't really get the difference
Maybe you hear a bad review of the movie or something, or make different plans. Your desire to watch a movie may change.
There are two verbs in this sentence! I'm not sure about the exact rules but "tomorrow" refers to see a movie and it seems to be correctly placed before the verb 看! I usually think like
They want (something) Something = they see a movie tomorrow
They want to watch the movie tomorrow instead of another time. Whereas if 想 was placed after 明天 it would be more along the lines of they want to watch a movie tomorrow instead of another activity.
No one else has mentioned this here, but I think amongst in South East Asian mandarin speakers, you wouldn't tend to hear the 想 come in front of the 明天 but rather the order you put it in, and it wouldn't sound out of place. However, you've been given a great explanation. South East Asian mandarin can sometimes have slightly different grammar (best example I can think of is "你吃先" instead of "你先吃". Similar logic)
想, 要 and 想要 can all mean ‘want’ in some sense, but 想 is the least forceful of the three
In many cases, it might be better to think of 想 as being more like ‘would like to’ rather than ‘want’. When used for expressing wants, 想 can only be followed by a verb or verb phrase. In other words, 想 only means ‘want’ when it’s an auxiliary verb.
Notice in each example 想 is followed by a verb. Also look at how 想 does mean ‘want’ in these situations, but it’s not very forceful. If a speaker wants to be very clear and emphatic in expressing ‘want’, they’re more likely to use the much more forceful 要. Because of the difference in how forceful they are, 想 can often be a more polite substitute for 要. For example, when ordering or requesting something, saying 想 is usually more polite than saying 要.
https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/xiang3-yao4-xiang3yao4-difference/
Not really about this section but I'm posting here as it's on my mind now, and hope it might help others. Because 想 can mean: want, miss, suppose, believe, think, wish... I find it helpful to define it (想) as "think about/ of". When you want something, you think about it, when you suppose something, you think about it, when you miss someone/ thing... etc.
If you haven't studied pinyin and Chinese phonetics specifically, you should take the time to do it, here is a good starting point: https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-pinyin-chart.php
The 想 almost always comes before. As a native speaker who is only using this app to learn how to read, I have never heard it used this way.
Hi. Thanks for joining here. Do you mean almost always comes before the verb? 想 看 is correct too?
Chinese doesn't really do singular/plural outside of groups of human beings (and not necessarily there), so yeah. They could want to do a whole cinema crawl tomorrow for all we know.
Couldn't it also be translated at "they want to watch a movie tomorrow? Why is想 sometimes want and sometimes would like?
Doesn't 想 also mean planning, thinking, considering? so can't I use one of these words in the sentence?
Xiăng to think, to suppose, to want to, to miss, to think over, to reckon
They would like to see a movie, not watch a movie, unless they want to watch a movie on television.
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My answer " they want to watch movie tomorrow" was marked wrong. Instead, DUOLINGO put "they want to watch A movie tomorrow". The difference of an "a" should not make difference to meaning. How ridiculous!!
That is very different from the intended meaning. They "would like" does not mean that they would end up seeing the movie. It is their desire. That is why 想 is used to show that.
They are going to see a movie tomorrow = 他們明天會去看電影 / 他们明天會去看电影
i voted up your comment because people who can't be bothered to learn even a little traditional are cowards ;)
When you're first learning, mixing simplified and traditional would be very confusing. Better to learn one first and then tackle the other.
