Breakdown of Tā hé tóngxué xiàkè yǐhòu chángcháng yìqǐ shàngwǎng.
Questions & Answers about Tā hé tóngxué xiàkè yǐhòu chángcháng yìqǐ shàngwǎng.
In 她和同学下课以后常常一起上网, 和 is linking 她 and 同学 and is best understood as “with” here:
- 她和同学… → She with (her) classmates… → She and (her) classmates…
So structurally it’s like: “She and (her) classmates often go online together after class.”
You can usually replace 和 with 跟 in this “with” sense:
- 她跟同学下课以后常常一起上网。
Both are natural here. Very subtle differences:
- 和 is a bit more neutral / textbook-like.
- 跟 can sound a bit more colloquial in many regions.
In most everyday sentences like this, they’re interchangeable.
Chinese usually doesn’t mark plural on nouns when it isn’t necessary.
- 同学 can mean “classmate” or “classmates”, depending on context.
- Because we have 她和同学…一起上网 (“she and classmate(s)… together go online”), it is naturally understood as plural.
You could say 同学们, but:
- 她和同学们下课以后常常一起上网。
This is also correct, and slightly emphasizes that it’s a group of classmates.
No 们 is the default and sounds completely normal.
Chinese often omits possessives when the owner is obvious.
- 她和同学 literally: “she and (the) classmate(s)”.
- In context, it is naturally interpreted as “she and her classmates”.
If you really want to spell it out:
- 她和她的同学下课以后常常一起上网。
(She and her classmates often go online after class.)
However, 她和同学… already sounds normal and is very common in everyday speech.
- 下课: “to finish a class / a lesson ends”
- Refers to a period of class ending, not necessarily the whole school day.
- 下课以后 = after the class (period) ends.
- 放学: “school is over; students are dismissed from school”
- Refers to the school day ending.
- 放学以后 = after school is over for the day.
- 下班: “to get off work; finish work”
- Used for jobs, not school.
- 下班以后 = after work.
So 下课以后 here means after (each) class finishes, not just at the end of the whole school day.
以后 means “after”, giving a clear time relation:
- 下课以后 = “after class (is over)”.
If you say only 下课常常一起上网, it becomes ambiguous:
- It could be read as “when class ends, they often immediately go online”, but it sounds a bit incomplete or less natural.
- Native speakers almost always say 下课以后 (or 下课了以后) if they want to emphasize “after class.”
So the natural habitual pattern is:
- 下课以后常常一起上网。
(They often go online after class.)
Typical Chinese word order for these elements is:
Subject + (Time) + (Frequency) + (Manner) + Verb + Object
In this sentence:
- Subject: 她和同学
- Time: 下课以后
- Frequency: 常常
- Manner: 一起
- Verb + Object: 上网
So: 她和同学 下课以后 常常 一起 上网。
You can move things a little:
- 她和同学常常下课以后一起上网。 (possible, but slightly less smooth)
- 她和同学下课以后一起常常上网。 (unnatural placement)
The most natural and standard is the original:
[Time] 下课以后 before [Frequency] 常常.
Chinese doesn’t normally mark tense like English. Instead, it uses:
- Time expressions (e.g. 下课以后, 明天, 昨天)
- Aspect particles (了, 过, 着) when needed
- Frequency adverbs (常常, 经常, 每天) for habits
In this sentence:
- 下课以后: signals the general time (after class).
- 常常: signals a habitual action (“often”).
Because it describes a repeated / habitual action, you don’t normally use 了 here.
So the sentence can refer to:
- a general habit in the present (She often goes online after class), or
- a past habit described with other context.
Mandarin relies heavily on context + time words, not verb conjugation.
常 and 常常 both mean “often / frequently”, and both can be used here:
- 下课以后常一起上网。
- 下课以后常常一起上网。
Nuances (very small):
- 常常 feels a bit more spoken / casual and can sound slightly more emphatic.
- 常 can feel a bit more compact / slightly formal, and is common in writing.
In everyday spoken Mandarin, 常常 is extremely common and very natural in this sentence.
一起 means “together”.
- 她和同学下课以后常常上网。
→ could be read as: She and (her) classmates (each) often go online after class. The “together” idea is not explicit. - 她和同学下课以后常常一起上网。
→ clearly: They go online together.
So 一起 explicitly communicates that this is a joint activity, not just something they all happen to do individually.
Literally:
- 上 (shàng): to go up / to get on
- 网 (wǎng): net → the Internet
So 上网 is “to go on the Internet / get online”.
It’s very broad and can mean:
- browse / surf the web
- chat online
- watch videos
- play online games
- check social media, etc.
If you need to be specific, you add a verb:
- 上网聊天 – chat online
- 上网看视频 – watch videos online
- 上网玩游戏 – play games online
But on its own, 上网 just means “to be / go online, use the Internet”.
Chinese usually doesn’t repeat the subject if it doesn’t have to.
Once you say:
- 她和同学…
we already know who the subject is: she and her classmates.
So the rest of the clause naturally refers back to them:
- 她和同学下课以后常常一起上网。
→ (They) often go online together after class.
Adding 他们 again would be redundant and unnatural:
- ✗ 她和同学下课以后他们常常一起上网。 (wrong / very odd)
The subject 她和同学 stays in force until a new subject appears.
Key pronunciation points:
- 她 (tā) – first tone
- 和 (hé) – second tone here (hé); in fast speech sometimes sounds light.
- 同学 (tóngxué) – tóng (2nd) + xué (2nd)
- 下课 (xiàkè) – xià (4th) + kè (4th)
- 以后 (yǐhòu) – yǐ (3rd) + hòu (4th)
- 常常 (chángcháng) – both cháng are 2nd tone, no sandhi.
- 一起 (yìqǐ) – 一 changes from 1st to 2nd tone before the 3rd tone 起:
- pronounced yíqǐ (2nd + 3rd).
- 上网 (shàngwǎng) – shàng (4th) + wǎng (3rd). No special sandhi here.
So spoken smoothly:
tā hé tóngxué xiàkè yǐhòu chángcháng yíqǐ shàngwǎng.