Questions & Answers about zuówǎn wǎngluò bù wěndìng.
Why does the sentence start with 昨晚?
In Mandarin, time words often come near the beginning of the sentence, before the thing being talked about.
So:
- 昨晚 网络 不 稳定。
- literally: Last night, the network was not stable.
This is very natural Chinese word order.
English often puts the time expression at the end, but Chinese very often places it earlier.
A common pattern is:
Time + topic/subject + comment
So here:
- 昨晚 = last night
- 网络 = network / internet connection
- 不稳定 = not stable / unstable
Is 昨晚 the same as 昨天晚上?
They are very close in meaning.
- 昨晚 = last night
- 昨天晚上 = yesterday evening / last night
昨晚 is shorter and very common in everyday speech.
昨天晚上 is a little fuller and slightly more explicit.
In this sentence, both work:
- 昨晚网络不稳定。
- 昨天晚上网络不稳定。
Both are natural.
What exactly does 网络 mean here?