"It is windy outside."
Translation:外面刮着风。
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着 indicates the wind is currently in the process of blowing, so basically present-continuous tense in English.
But is the English sentence present continuous? I think not. Then it should also be accepted without 着.
That's not the Chinese way to say it though. It is windy outside implies "right now", it has the same temporal meaning as the English present continuous "The wind is blowing outside". We have to also express that temporal meaning in the Chinese translation, without 着 that is missing.
There aren't time stamps on these comments so idk how long it's been but i just answered this without 着 and got it right
I'm guessing because it's prett present progressive (continuous action happening now)
No, 在 is definitely in the wrong place since it shoud always precede the verb. 着 goes right after the verb
The 了 would indicate that it has started being windy rather than just that it is windy, since 了 is used for changes of state
868
Could you please teach us why not? Is 风 not the subject in this case? If so, is there an omitted/implied subject?
风刮着 felt very unnatural to me, and I would have used it only if the wind was blowing something (leaves, chairs...). So yeah, I thought it would require an object. But at the same time, I knew that verb+着 did not necessarily require an object.
So I asked a native friend, and here is what she said: "Actually it is possible. 外面 means outside, 风 means wind, 刮着 is blowing. But normally we would say 外面刮着风. 风刮着 just shows that there is wind outside. But of course, you can make the wind blow stuff."
So, 风刮着 is technically right, but definitely not used by native speakers.
It seems to me that “technically right but definitely not used by native speakers” is a recurring issue in many discussions, particularly when there is a tendency to want the Chinese to match the English translation. Personally, I prefer thatbthe English translation match the Chinese, no matter how awkward. I end up doing that anyway, which makes it easier to learn the differences between the two languages and improve my ability to construct sentences correctly.
- 1076
I don't get when I'm supposed to use 刮. It seems to change randomly every sentence with no hints in the English sentence. Why do I need it here when other sentences don't?