Learn Hardcore Chinese: tā měitiān zǎoshang qù gōngyuán yùndòng, chángcháng pǎobù. - She goes to the park to exercise every morning and often jogs.

她去公园运动每天早上 is grammatically odd and sounds wrong to native speakers. Time phrases almost never go at the very end like that in this kind of sentence.

What exactly does 运动 (yùndòng) mean here? Is it a noun (“exercise”) or a verb (“to exercise”)?

运动 can be both:

As a verb: “to exercise / to work out”
- 她每天早上去公园运动。
  → She goes to the park to exercise every morning.
As a noun: “exercise / sports”
- 我喜欢做运动。
  → I like to do exercise / I like sports.

In your sentence, 运动 is functioning as a verb: “to exercise, to work out.”

Why is it 去公园运动 and not something like 去公园做运动?

All of these are possible, but they differ in style and naturalness:

去公园运动 – very natural and concise, means “go to the park to exercise.”
去公园做运动 – understandable, but sounds more formal or slightly less natural in everyday speech.
去公园锻炼 (duànliàn) – also very common, “go to the park to work out / do physical exercise.”

Because 运动 can already be used as a verb, you don’t need 做 in front of it here.

What is the difference between 早上, 上午, and 早晨?

All relate to the morning, but usage differs:

早上 (zǎoshang) – “morning” in daily conversation; roughly from waking up until around 9–10 a.m. Very common and neutral.
上午 (shàngwǔ) – “morning” as a time period on the clock (before noon). Slightly more formal; used in schedules, official contexts, or precise times.
早晨 (zǎochen) – also “morning,” often feels a bit more literary or poetic; can suggest early morning.

In this sentence, 每天早上 is the most natural choice for everyday spoken Chinese.

Why do we have both 每天 and 常常? In English “every day” already implies “often.”

Chinese allows both 每天 (“every day”) and 常常 (“often / frequently”) together, and it’s not redundant. They emphasize different parts:

每天早上去公园运动 → The going to the park to exercise happens every morning.
常常跑步 → Among the exercises she does, she often runs (but might also do other activities).

So the meaning is closer to:

“She goes to the park to exercise every morning, and she often runs (there).”

What is the function of the comma ， between 运动 and 常常跑步? Could it be one sentence with no comma?

In Chinese, commas often separate closely related clauses within one longer sentence:

她每天早上去公园运动，常常跑步。
→ Clause 1: 她每天早上去公园运动。
→ Clause 2: 常常跑步。

You can think of it like:

“She goes to the park to exercise every morning, and she often runs.”

You normally would not remove the comma and write:

她每天早上去公园运动常常跑步。 (unnatural)

Without the comma, it feels like a single jumbled verb phrase; Chinese prefers to clearly separate clauses in this case.

Why is it 常常跑步 and not 跑常常步 or something else? Where do adverbs like 常常 go?

Adverbs like 常常 (often) usually go before the verb they modify:

常常 + 跑步 → “often runs”
她常常跑步。 → She often runs.

You cannot split 跑步 and put 常常 inside:

✗ 跑常常步 → incorrect.

Basic pattern:

[Subject] + [Adverb] + [Verb] (+ Object)
她 + 常常 + 跑步

What is the difference between 跑 (pǎo) and 跑步 (pǎobù)?

Both relate to “running,” but usage differs:

跑 – “to run” (verb), more general:
- 孩子在操场上跑。
  → The children are running on the playground.
跑步 – literally “run-step,” commonly used specifically for “to go running / to jog” as exercise:
- 我每天跑步。
  → I go running every day.

In 常常跑步, it implies running as a form of exercise, not just “running” in any random context.

Why is there no word like “to” before 跑步? In English we say “to run.”

Chinese verbs don’t need an extra word like English “to” (an infinitive marker). The bare verb form is used:

她常常跑步。
→ literally: “She often run-step.”
→ natural English: “She often runs / she often goes running.”

Likewise:

去公园运动 → “go to the park exercise” = “go to the park to exercise.”

The “to” idea is usually understood from the structure, not from a separate word.

How do we know this sentence is in the present tense? There’s no tense marker like in English.

Chinese does not mark tense the same way English does. Instead, we infer time from:

Time words:
- 每天早上 → “every morning” → habitual action in the present (or general truth).
No aspect particle (like 了, 过, 着) → suggests a habit or general statement rather than a completed, one-time past action.

So:

她每天早上去公园运动，常常跑步。
is naturally understood as:
“She goes to the park to exercise every morning; she often runs.”

To talk about the past, you’d add other elements, like:

她以前每天早上去公园运动。→ She used to go every morning.
她昨天早上去公园运动了。→ She went yesterday morning.

Could we say 她每天早上在公园运动 instead of 去公园运动? What’s the difference?

Yes, both are correct, but there is a nuance:

她每天早上去公园运动
→ Focus on going to the park (movement) in order to exercise.
她每天早上在公园运动
→ Focus on the location where she exercises (at the park), less on the act of going there.

In many contexts they describe the same routine, but:

去公园运动 highlights the action of going there to exercise.
在公园运动 highlights where the exercise happens.

Why is there no classifier like 个 before 公园? Should it be 去一个公园?

In Chinese, you only use a classifier like 个 when you need “one / a certain / that” in a more specific way.

Here, 公园 is used in general as a place where she goes regularly:

她每天早上去公园运动。
→ “She goes to the park to exercise every morning.”
(Which park is probably known from context, or it’s just “the park” in general.)

If you say:

去一个公园运动
→ “go to a park to exercise” – this sounds like a random park, not a fixed routine place.

For a regular, habitual action, 去公园 without a classifier is natural.

In speech, 她 (tā) sounds the same as 他 (he) and 它 (it). How do people know it’s “she” here?

In spoken Mandarin, 她 / 他 / 它 are all pronounced the same: tā. People understand who you mean from context, not from the sound.

In written Chinese:
- 她 = she (female person)
- 他 = he (male person or generic “they / someone”)
- 它 = it (non-human: animal, object, abstract thing)

So:

她每天早上去公园运动，常常跑步。
In writing, clearly refers to a female.
In speech, listeners just hear tā and infer from context (earlier mention of a woman, etc.).