Breakdown of wàimiàn xiàyǔ de shíhou, wǒ zài fángjiān lǐ kànbùqīngchu wàimiàn de mǎlù.
Questions & Answers about wàimiàn xiàyǔ de shíhou, wǒ zài fángjiān lǐ kànbùqīngchu wàimiàn de mǎlù.
的时候 literally means “the time when …” or “when …”.
- 外面下雨 = “it is raining outside”
- 外面下雨的时候 = “the time when it is raining outside” → “when it’s raining outside”
Grammatically, 的 turns the verb phrase 下雨 (“to rain”) into something that can be treated like a noun (a “time”):
- 下雨的（时候） = “the time when it rains”
So the structure is:
- [situation] 的时候， [main action]
- 外面下雨的时候， 我在房间里看不清楚外面的马路。 → “When it’s raining outside, I can’t see the road outside clearly from my room.”
You can often drop 的时候 in casual speech, but adding 的时候 makes the “when…” time phrase explicit and natural.
时候 and 时间 both relate to time, but they’re used differently.
时候 = “when / at the time (that) …”
- Often used with a clause: …的时候 = “when …”
- Focuses on a point or period tied to an event.
- 外面下雨的时候 = “when it’s raining outside”
时间 = “(amount/length of) time”
- More like a noun “time” in the sense of duration or available time.
- 我没有时间。 = “I don’t have time.”
- 学习中文的时间 = “the time for studying Chinese” (emphasis on duration/allocated time)
In this sentence, we are talking about “when it rains” (a situation), not “the duration of rain time”, so 时候 is natural.
外面下雨的时间 is grammatically possible, but it sounds more like:
- “the time period when it’s raining outside” (as a measurable block of time), and less like a normal “when…” clause. For a simple “when it’s raining,” use 外面下雨的时候.
It’s the same character 的, but functioning slightly differently.
- In 外面的马路:
- 外面 = “outside”
- 马路 = “road”
- 外面的马路 = “the road outside”
Here, 外面 is an attributive describing 马路; 的 links a modifier to a noun:
- 外面 + 的 + 马路 = “outside + ’s + road” → “the road outside”
- In 下雨的时候:
- 下雨 = “to rain”
- 下雨的 turns the verb phrase into something that can modify 时候.
- 下雨的时候 = “the time when it rains”
So:
- X + 的 + noun → “the noun that is X / X’s noun” (adjective-like)
- 外面的马路 = “the road that is outside”
- (verb phrase) + 的 + 时候 → “the time when (verb phrase)”
Same particle 的, but one links a place word to a noun, the other links a verb phrase to 时候.
In Chinese, time and condition phrases are very often put at the beginning of the sentence:
- 外面下雨的时候， 我在房间里看不清楚外面的马路。 → “When it’s raining outside, I can’t see the road outside clearly from my room.”
Putting 外面下雨的时候 at the start:
- sets the scene or condition first,
- then tells you what happens in that situation.
You should not place 外面下雨的时候 in the middle like:
- ✗ 我在房间里外面下雨的时候看不清楚外面的马路。 (unnatural/confusing)
More acceptable alternatives:
- 我在房间里的时候，看不清楚外面的马路。 (When I’m in my room…)
- 当外面下雨的时候，我在房间里看不清楚外面的马路。 (adding 当 for emphasis, see next question)
So yes, the sentence-initial position for 外面下雨的时候 is the natural and preferred one.
Yes, you can say:
- 当外面下雨的时候，我在房间里看不清楚外面的马路。
当 here means roughly “when” or “at the time when” and makes the time clause sound a bit more formal or emphatic.
Comparison:
- 外面下雨的时候
→ Very common, neutral, natural in everyday speech. - 当外面下雨的时候
→ A bit more formal or emphatic, often in written language or careful speech.
Both are grammatically correct. For everyday conversation, 外面下雨的时候 by itself is perfectly fine and more common.
- 在 marks location: “at / in / on”.
- 里 means “inside”.
房间 is “room”.
房间里 is “inside the room”.
So:
- 在房间里 = “(to be) in the room / inside the room”.
Details:
- 我在房间里 is the most natural and explicit: “I’m inside the room.”
- 我在房间 is possible in casual speech, but sounds slightly less complete; 里 is often implied but not written in very colloquial contexts.
- 我房间里 without 在 is not okay as a full predicate; 在 is needed to say “I am in…”.
Structure:
- [subject] + 在 + [place] + 里 + [do something]
- 我在房间里看书。 = “I read in my room.”
- 我在房间里看不清楚外面的马路。
The two 外面 serve different roles:
First 外面 (in 外面下雨的时候):
- Describes where it is raining.
- 外面下雨 = “it’s raining outside.”
Second 外面 (in 外面的马路):
- Modifies 马路: which road? → the road outside.
- 外面的马路 = “the road outside (my building/room).”
Could you drop the first 外面?
- 下雨的时候，我在房间里看不清楚外面的马路。
- Now: “When it rains, I can’t see the road outside clearly from my room.”
- This is grammatically fine and natural; it just doesn’t explicitly say the rain is outside, which is usually understood anyway.
Could you drop the second 外面?
- 外面下雨的时候，我在房间里看不清楚马路。
- Grammatically okay, but now it’s just “the road” (no specific indication it’s outside your room). The sentence becomes less precise.
So the original double 外面 makes both:
- where it rains (outside),
- and which road (the outside road), very clear.
Both express difficulty seeing, but in different ways:
看不清楚:
- 看 = to look / see
- 清楚 = clear
- 看不清楚 = “cannot see clearly”
- You can see something, but it’s blurry, vague, or obscured.
- e.g. because of rain, fog, darkness, distance.
看不见:
- 见 = see
- 看不见 = “cannot see (at all)”
- You basically do not see it, or it’s not visible to you.
In this sentence:
- 看不清楚外面的马路 suggests:
- You can sort of see something is there, but the road is not clear (rain is making your view blurry). If we used:
- 看不见外面的马路, it would mean:
- You can’t see the road at all (maybe it’s completely blocked, pitch dark, etc.).
看不清楚 is an example of a common structure:
Verb + 不 + Resultative complement
- 看清楚 = “to see clearly”
- 看 = to see
- 清楚 = clear
- 看不清楚 = “cannot see clearly / fail to see clearly”
The resultative complement (here 清楚) describes the result of the action:
- If the result is achieved: 看清楚了 (“I have seen it clearly.”)
- If the result is not achieved: 看不清楚 (“I can’t see it clearly.”)
Other examples:
- 听懂 = “to understand (by listening)” → 听不懂 = “can’t understand (by listening)”
- 找着 = “to find [something]” → 找不着 = “can’t find [it]”
So in this sentence, 看不清楚 says the result of clear seeing is not achieved.
Yes, you can say:
- 我在房间里看不清外面的马路。
看不清 and 看不清楚 are very close in meaning and both are natural:
- 看不清 is a bit shorter and slightly more casual.
- 看不清楚 feels a little more complete/emphatic, but not more “correct”.
In everyday speech, both are widely used:
- 外面太黑了，我看不清路。
- 雨太大了，我看不清楚前面的车。
So in this sentence, either 看不清 or 看不清楚 is fine.
Chinese does not use 是 to form basic “it is doing something” statements the way English uses “is” for present continuous.
- English: “It is raining outside.”
- Chinese: 外面下雨。 (literally: “Outside rain.”)
Here:
- 下雨 is a verb phrase meaning “to rain”.
- You don’t need 是 before a verb in this kind of sentence.
- 是 is mainly used to link two nouns/pronouns (A = B), e.g.
他是老师。 = “He is a teacher.”
For tense/aspect:
- Chinese often relies on context and time words rather than verb conjugation.
- 外面下雨的时候 can mean “when it rains outside” or “when it is raining outside” depending on context; there’s no verb change like “rain” vs “is raining”.
So:
- 外面下雨的时候 is the natural way to say “when it is / was / will be raining outside” in a neutral, context-dependent way.
Yes, you can say:
- 天下雨的时候，我在房间里看不清楚外面的马路。
天下雨 is a very common way to say “it rains / it is raining” in general:
- 天 here refers to “the sky / the weather”.
- 天下雨 literally: “the sky rains” → “it rains”.
Difference:
- 外面下雨的时候:
- Slight emphasis on outside as the location (outside vs inside).
- 天下雨的时候:
- More neutral, just “when it rains / when it’s raining” without stressing “outside”.
Both are correct. In many contexts, they can be used interchangeably. Here, 外面 ties nicely to 外面的马路 (“the road outside”), so it creates a neat parallel: outside (rain) ↔ outside (road).