Breakdown of Tā píngshí hěn guānxīn biéren, shēngyīn yě zǒngshì bù dà.
Questions & Answers about Tā píngshí hěn guānxīn biéren, shēngyīn yě zǒngshì bù dà.
平时 means “normally / in daily life / at ordinary times”. It talks about someone’s usual state or habit, not one specific occasion.
In a sentence, 平时 is a time word and is usually placed:
- Before the verb phrase:
- 他平时很关心别人。
As for him, in daily life he cares a lot about others.
- 他平时很关心别人。
or
- At the very beginning (before the subject):
- 平时他很关心别人。
Both are natural. In your sentence, 他平时很关心别人, the structure is:
- 他 (subject)
- 平时 (time word: “normally”)
- 很关心别人 (verb phrase: “really cares about others”)
In 他平时很关心别人, 很 does carry some meaning, but it’s a bit weaker than English “very” and can also feel like a natural linker.
- 关心 is a verb (“to care about”).
- 很关心别人 = “cares about others a lot / is quite caring toward others.”
If you say:
- 他平时关心别人。
it is grammatically fine, but it can sound a bit flat or like a simple statement of fact: “He (does) care about others.”
Adding 很 makes it sound more natural and a bit more evaluative or descriptive – closer to “He’s the kind of person who really cares about other people.”
In this sentence, 关心别人 means “to care about other people / to be concerned about other people (emotionally)”.
Comparisons:
关心
- Focus on emotional concern, interest, or mental attention.
- 他很关心别人。
= He really cares about other people (is considerate, asks about them, worries about them).
关 by itself
- As a verb often means “to close, to shut” (关门).
- In “care about” meanings you usually need compounds like 关心, 关怀, not just 关.
照顾
- Means “to look after / to take care of (practically)”: helping, looking after someone’s needs.
- 他很照顾别人。
= He really looks after other people (helps them, takes care of their daily needs etc.).
So 关心别人 is more about emotional/mental concern, not necessarily physically taking care of them.
别人 means “other people / others” in general.
- It doesn’t take a plural marker like 们 here; 别人 already implies people (plural, in general).
- 其他人 also means “other people”, but in many everyday sentences, 别人 is the more natural, shorter, and more common choice.
Rough difference:
别人 – “other people (in general)”
- 他平时很关心别人。
He usually cares about other people.
- 他平时很关心别人。
其他人 – “the other people / the rest (besides a known group)”
- Often used when you’re contrasting with a specific set:
你先走，我去叫其他人。
You go first, I’ll go get the others.
- Often used when you’re contrasting with a specific set:
Here, the speaker is talking about his attitude to people in general, so 别人 fits perfectly.
The subject is still 他, even though 他 isn’t written again.
Chinese often omits repeated subjects when it’s clear from context. The comma links two descriptions of the same person:
他平时很关心别人，
(He usually cares about others,)(他) 声音也总是不大。
(and his voice is also always not loud.)
So this is really:
他平时很关心别人，他的声音也总是不大。
But because the subject is obvious, Chinese normally leaves it out to avoid repetition.
也 means “also / too”.
Here it shows that the second description is another characteristic of the same person, in addition to 关心别人.
- 他平时很关心别人，声音也总是不大。
= He usually really cares about others, and his voice is also always quiet.
If you omit 也:
- 他平时很关心别人，声音总是不大。
This is still correct, but it feels slightly less like “another matching trait” and more like just two facts in a row. With 也, the sentence sounds more smooth and cohesive, emphasizing “He’s this way in multiple aspects.”
In 声音也总是不大, the adverbs follow a common and natural ordering:
- 也 (additive: “also”)
- 总是 (frequency: “always”)
- 不 (negation)
- 大 (adjective “big / loud”)
So we get:
- (他) 声音
- 也 (also)
- 总是 (always)
- 不大 (not big → not loud).
Putting 也 first says: “This is also true of him.”
Then 总是 modifies 不大: “always not loud.”
Other orders like 声音总是也不大 sound unnatural or ungrammatical. In Chinese, 也 very often appears before the main adverb of frequency/degree when it’s just linking another trait.
With 声音, 不大 literally means “not big” and idiomatically means “not loud / soft / quiet”.
- 声音不大 ≈ “the voice is not loud” → quiet / soft-spoken.
- 声音很小 literally “the voice is very small”, and also means “very quiet”, but:
- 很小 feels a bit stronger (quite soft, maybe too soft).
- 不大 feels more mild and natural in describing a soft-spoken person.
Nuance:
他的声音不大。
Calm, neutral: His voice is (quite) quiet / soft.他的声音很小。
Can sound more like a complaint: His voice is (too) low / hard to hear.
In your sentence, 不大 matches the overall gentle tone: caring about others, speaking softly.
They are related but not redundant; they describe different parts:
平时 modifies his general life / usual behaviour:
- 他平时很关心别人
In his normal life, he cares about others.
- 他平时很关心别人
总是 modifies the frequency of his voice being quiet:
- 声音也总是不大
His voice is always not loud.
- 声音也总是不大
So you get:
- In general (平时), he is caring.
- As another trait (也), his voice is always (总是) quiet.
You could change one or the other:
- 他很关心别人，声音也总是不大。 (drop 平时)
- 他平时很关心别人，声音也不大。 (drop 总是)
Both are fine, but the original emphasizes habitual caring + habitually quiet voice.
In this context, 声音 is understood as his voice.
- 声音 can mean:
- general sound, or
- someone’s voice, depending on context.
Because we’re describing a person’s manner, 声音不大 here naturally means “his voice is not loud / he speaks quietly”.
嗓门 is more colloquial and refers to someone’s voice volume / vocal power, often in a slightly informal or rougher tone:
- 他的嗓门很大。
He has a loud voice.
You could say 他的嗓门不大, but 声音不大 is more neutral and standard, and fits better with the gentle, descriptive style of the sentence.
Yes, you could rewrite it with a conjunction, for example:
- 他平时很关心别人，而且他的声音总是不大。
- 他平时很关心别人，并且他的声音总是不大。
These versions are correct and sound a bit more explicit and written/formal, clearly marking “and also”.
The original:
- 他平时很关心别人，声音也总是不大。
is slightly more concise and natural in everyday speech, using 也 to smoothly add the second trait. The meaning is essentially the same: two positive, gentle qualities of the same person.