tā jīngcháng shàngwǎng kàn hěnduō guójiā de xīnwén.

He often goes online to read news from many countries.

Breakdown of tā jīngcháng shàngwǎng kàn hěnduō guójiā de xīnwén.

• 很hěn: very
• 的de: possessive particle
• 他tā: he
• 看kàn: to read
• 多duō: many
• 上网shàngwǎng: to surf the internet
• 新闻xīnwén: news
• 经常jīngcháng: often
• 国家guójiā: country

Questions & Answers about tā jīngcháng shàngwǎng kàn hěnduō guójiā de xīnwén.

Why is 经常 (jīngcháng) placed before 上网 (shàngwǎng) and not somewhere else?

In Chinese, adverbs like 经常 (often) usually go before the main verb they modify.

• 他 经常 上网 = He often goes online.
  Subject + adverb + verb

If you put 经常 after the verb, like 他上网经常, it sounds wrong or very unnatural. You can sometimes move 经常 to the very beginning for emphasis:

• 经常，他上网看很多国家的新闻。 (More like: “Often, he goes online to read news from many countries.” – a special, emphatic structure.)

But the neutral, most natural position is exactly as in the sentence: subject + 经常 + verb.

Is 上网 (shàngwǎng) one verb or a verb + object like “go + internet”?

Grammatically, 上网 is treated as one verb phrase meaning “to go online / to surf the internet”.

• 上 (shàng) originally means “to go up / to get on”
• 网 (wǎng) means “net; web”

Historically it’s like “get on the net”, but in modern Chinese, learners can think of 上网 simply as a single verb: “to get online / to use the internet”. You don’t usually separate them or insert an object between 上 and 网 in this usage.

Why is 看 (kàn) used here for “read news” instead of 读 (dú)?

Both 看 and 读 can relate to reading, but they’re used differently:

• 看 is more general: “look at, watch, read”.
  You 看 newspapers, books, websites, messages, etc.
• 读 is more specifically “to read aloud / to read (in a more formal, studious way)” and also “to study (at a school, subject)”.

For news, especially online or on TV, Chinese almost always uses 看:

• 看新闻 = to read/watch the news
• 读新闻 is possible but sounds more like carefully reading written news, maybe aloud, and is less common for everyday speech.

So 上网看新闻 is the natural, idiomatic phrase.

Why do we say 上网看 and not something like 看上网?

Chinese normally keeps each verb together with its own “area” of meaning and orders actions in a natural time sequence.

In 上网看很多国家的新闻:

1. 上网 – go online / get on the internet
2. 看很多国家的新闻 – (then) read the news of many countries

So the order is [go online] + [read news].
If you said 看上网很多国家的新闻, it would break the normal pattern:

• 看上网 is not a standard combination.
• The listener would have trouble parsing what modifies what.

So the correct verb sequence is: 上网 + 看 + (object).

Why isn’t there a word for “from” before 很多国家 (hěn duō guójiā), like “from many countries”?

Chinese often doesn’t need a preposition like “from” when the relationship is clear from context and structure.

Here, 很多国家的新闻 literally means:

• 很多 – many
• 国家 – countries
• 的 – structural particle linking modifier to noun
• 新闻 – news

So it’s “many countries’ news” → which in English we phrase as “news from many countries”.

The idea of “from” is encoded by 的 and the modifier–noun structure, not by a separate preposition like English “from” or Chinese 从 (cóng). You could say 从很多国家来的新闻 for “news that comes from many countries”, but that’s longer and more formal; the original is simpler and very natural.

What exactly is the function of 的 (de) in 很多国家的新闻?

Here, 的 links a modifier (an adjective-like part) to a noun:

• Modifier: 很多国家 (many countries)
• Noun: 新闻 (news)

So 很多国家的新闻 means “the news of/from many countries”.

In grammar terms, 的 is marking an attributive relationship: “A 的 B” ≈ “B that is related to A / A’s B / B of A”.

So:

• 中国的新闻 – China’s news / news from China
• 很多国家的新闻 – many countries’ news / news from many countries

Why is there no measure word between 很多 (hěn duō) and 国家 (guójiā) or 新闻 (xīnwén)?

Two things are happening here:

1. 国家 is a countable noun, and normally you’d say:

   • 很多个国家 – many countries
     But when 很多 is used and the meaning is clear, the measure word 个 is often dropped in casual speech:
   • 很多国家 is very common and natural.

2. 新闻 is typically treated as an uncountable / mass noun, like “news” in English. You don’t usually count individual “news” items unless you phrase it differently, e.g.:

   • 很多条新闻 – many (individual) news items, news stories.
     In this sentence, we’re talking about news in general from many countries, so just 新闻 without a measure word is normal.

So:

• 很多国家的新闻 = the news (mass noun) of many countries (countries understood as “many [units] of country”).

Does 国家 (guójiā) here mean “country” or “nation”? How do plurals work in this phrase?

国家 can mean both “country” and “nation”; there’s no strong difference in everyday speech.

Chinese does not usually mark plural on nouns the way English does (no “-s”). Plurality is shown by:

• context
• words like 很多 (many), 一些 (some), numbers + measure words, etc.

In 很多国家的新闻:

• 很多 explicitly shows it’s many, so 国家 here is clearly plural in meaning: “countries”.

You don’t say 国家们 for “countries”; that’s wrong. 们 is only used for certain kinds of words (mainly people and some animals), not for things like countries, books, etc.

Why isn’t there a 了 (le) in this sentence to show the action happened?

了 often marks completed actions or changes of state, but in this sentence we’re expressing a habitual action, something done regularly:

• 他经常上网看很多国家的新闻。
  “He often goes online to read news from many countries.”

For habits and general truths, Chinese normally does not use 了.
If you said:

• 他上网看了很多国家的新闻。

that would describe a specific completed event in the past:
“He went online and read news from many countries (on that occasion).”

Here we’re talking about what he generally does, so no 了 is needed.

Could the subject 他 (tā) be left out in natural Chinese?

Yes, if the subject is clearly understood from context, Chinese can and often does drop it.

For example, in a conversation where you’re already talking about him:

• A: 你爸爸平时做什么？ – What does your dad usually do?
• B: 经常上网看很多国家的新闻。 – (He) often goes online to read news from many countries.

In isolation, though (like in a textbook example), we usually keep 他 so the sentence is fully clear. Both are grammatically fine; dropping it just makes the sentence more context-dependent.

Can I say 他经常在网上看新闻 instead of 他经常上网看新闻? What’s the difference?

Both are correct, but they have slightly different focuses:

1. 他经常上网看很多国家的新闻。
   Literally: “He often goes online to read news from many countries.”

   • Emphasis on the action of going online, using the internet.

2. 他经常在网上看很多国家的新闻。
   Literally: “He often on the internet reads news from many countries.”

   • Emphasis on the place / medium where he reads: “on the internet”.

In practice, they usually describe the same habit, and both are very natural. The first sounds a bit more like “He often uses the internet to read foreign news,” the second more like “When he’s on the internet, he often reads foreign news.”

How should I pronounce the words in this sentence, and are there any tone traps?

Pinyin with tones:

• 他 – tā (1st tone)
• 经常 – jīngcháng (1st + 2nd; cháng, not “chāng”)
• 上网 – shàngwǎng (4th + 3rd; careful with the 3rd tone wǎng)
• 看 – kàn (4th)
• 很多 – hěn duō (3rd + 1st)
• 国家 – guójiā (2nd + 1st; the jiā is light but still 1st tone)
• 的 – de (neutral tone)
• 新闻 – xīnwén (1st + 2nd)

Common issues:

• Mixing up tones in 经常 (jīngcháng); remember it’s 1st + 2nd.
• Not really dipping on wǎng (3rd tone) in 上网; in natural speech it may be a “half 3rd tone”, but you should still feel it’s low then rising.
• Over‑stressing 的 (de); it’s a neutral, light syllable.

Why don’t we need a separate word like “to” or “go to” before 上网 (as in “go to the internet”)?

In Chinese, 上网 itself already contains the idea of “go/get on”:

• 上 – go up / get on
• 网 – net / web

So you don’t say 去上网 to mean the ordinary “go online”; that sounds like an extra “go” and is usually unnecessary or odd in this context.

In English, we say “go online” with a separate verb “go,” but Chinese packages it all into 上网. Therefore no additional “to/go” word is required.