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jìzhě yòu wèn tā, wèishénme bù zài jiā wán yóuxì, érshì měitiān lái gōngyuán dǎ lánqiú.

记者jìzhě　又yòu　问wèn　她tā，　为什么wèishénme　不bù　在zài　家jiā　玩wán　游戏yóuxì，　而是érshì　每天měitiān　来lái　公园gōngyuán　打dǎ　篮球lánqiú。jìzhě yòu wèn tā, wèishénme bù zài jiā wán yóuxì, érshì měitiān lái gōngyuán dǎ lánqiú.
The reporter then asked her why she doesn’t play games at home, but instead comes to the park to play basketball every day.
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Questions & Answers about jìzhě yòu wèn tā, wèishénme bù zài jiā wán yóuxì, érshì měitiān lái gōngyuán dǎ lánqiú.

In 记者又问她, what does 又 mean? Does it mean again, also, or something else? Could we leave it out?

Here 又 means again / once more in a narrative sense:

  • 记者又问她 ≈ The reporter asked her again / The reporter then (again) asked her.

It implies:

  • The reporter has already asked her something before,
  • and now follows up with another question.

You could say simply 记者问她 (without 又), but:

  • 记者问她 = neutral: “the reporter asked her”
  • 记者又问她 = adds the idea of repetition / continuation in the story.

So 又 is not just also here; it mainly signals another time / another question in a sequence.

Why is there no 她 after 为什么? Why is it 为什么不在家玩游戏 instead of something like 为什么她不在家玩游戏?

Chinese does not need to repeat the subject if it’s already clear from context.

  • The subject 她 is already given in 记者又问她.
  • So 为什么不在家玩游戏 is understood as
    (She) why doesn’t (she) play games at home?
    → i.e. Why doesn’t she play games at home?

You could say 记者又问她，为什么她不在家玩游戏 and it’s still correct, but native speakers often omit the second 她 because it’s redundant. Dropping the subject when it’s obvious is very common in Chinese.

Why is it 不在家玩游戏 and not 在家不玩游戏? What’s the difference?

Both are grammatical but mean different things:

  • 不在家玩游戏
    Focus: she doesn’t do the action of playing games at home.
    → Why don’t you stay at home and play games?
    (Why don’t you choose to play games at home?)

  • 在家不玩游戏
    Focus: when she is at home, she does not play games.
    → At home, (she) doesn’t play games.

In this sentence, the contrast pattern is:

  • 不在家玩游戏，而是每天来公园打篮球。
    Not (stay at home and play games), but (instead) come to the park every day to play basketball.

So the first 不 is negating the whole activity 在家玩游戏 (playing games at home), which is why 不 goes before 在家玩游戏 as a unit.

What exactly does 而是 mean here? How is 不……而是…… different from just using 但是 or 可是?

而是 is used in a correcting / replacing contrast, typically after a negation:

  • Pattern: 不 A，而是 B
    Meaning: Not A, but (instead) B.

In this sentence:

  • 不在家玩游戏，而是每天来公园打篮球。
    = (She) doesn’t play games at home, but instead comes to the park every day to play basketball.

Comparisons:

  • 但是 / 可是 = but / however, a general contrast:

    • 她不在家玩游戏，但是每天来公园打篮球。
      This just contrasts two facts; it doesn’t clearly express the idea of “not A, but B instead” as a replacement.

  • 而是 strongly implies:

    • A was an expected / possible choice,
    • but B is what actually happens instead.

So 而是 is the natural choice here because we have a choice between two activities:
playing games at home vs coming to the park to play basketball.

Can 而是 be used without a 不 in front of it?

Yes, but then the negation might appear elsewhere, or be implied.

Typical pattern is 不 A，而是 B, but you also see:

  • 不是……而是……
    Example:
    他不是美国人，而是加拿大人。
    → He is not American, but (rather) Canadian.

Or sometimes 不 is in the first clause but not right before A; still, some kind of negated option vs real option contrast is there. In this sentence, the clearest textbook pattern is used: 不 A，而是 B.

Why is it 来公园 and not 去公园? What’s the difference between 来 and 去 here?

Both 来 and 去 mean to come / to go, but:

  • 来 = movement toward the speaker’s (or narrative’s) reference point.
  • 去 = movement away from that point.

In practice:

  • If the speaker or narrative “point of view” is located at or identified with the park, 来公园 (come to the park) is natural.
  • If the point of view is somewhere else (e.g. at home), 去公园 (go to the park) is natural.

In written stories or news-style narration, authors sometimes use 来公园 more loosely just to mean (she) comes to the park as part of her daily routine, without strictly calculating spatial direction.

In everyday speech, you might often hear:

  • 她每天去公园打篮球。
    perfectly natural: She goes to the park to play basketball every day.
  • 她每天来公园打篮球。
    natural if the speaker is at or associated with that park, or in narrative style.

So both are possible; the exact choice depends on the vantage point the speaker imagines.

Why is there no 她 in the second clause? Why 而是每天来公园打篮球 and not 而是她每天来公园打篮球?

Again, Chinese often drops repeated subjects when it’s clear who is being talked about.

The overall structure is:

  • 记者又问她，为什么不在家玩游戏，而是每天来公园打篮球。

The subject 她 is:

  • explicitly mentioned just before the quote (问她),
  • understood to be the one who does not play games at home,
  • and also understood to be the one who comes to the park every day.

So both:

  • 而是每天来公园打篮球。
  • 而是她每天来公园打篮球。

are grammatical, but the first is more natural because Chinese usually doesn’t repeat the subject when it remains the same.

Why is it 打篮球 instead of 玩篮球? When do we use 打 versus 玩?

In Chinese, many ball sports use a specific verb rather than the general 玩.

Common patterns:

  • 打篮球 – play basketball
  • 打网球 – play tennis
  • 踢足球 – play soccer (kick football)
  • 打乒乓球 – play table tennis
  • 打羽毛球 – play badminton

玩 means to play / to have fun / to amuse oneself, but:

  • 玩篮球 is unusual in standard Mandarin.
  • People say 打篮球 for play basketball.

Similarly:

  • 玩游戏 is correct and very common: to play games (video games, board games, etc.).
  • But for basketball, you must use 打篮球.
Why is it 在家 and not 在家里? Is there a difference?

Both are correct:

  • 在家玩游戏
  • 在家里玩游戏

家 here means home / house, and:

  • 在家 is already understood as “at home / at the house”.
  • 在家里 adds 里 (inside), literally inside the home, but in many contexts 在家 and 在家里 are interchangeable.

Subtle nuance:

  • 在家 is a bit shorter and more neutral.
  • 在家里 can sound a bit more explicit or slightly more emphatic about being inside the home, but not by much.

In this sentence, 在家玩游戏 is the simplest, most natural form.

Why is there no measure word with 家? Why not something like 在一个家?

家 can mean both:

  1. A family / a household / a home (countable), and
  2. Home as an uncountable, abstract place word, similar to English home vs a home.

When you mean “at home” (your own home), Chinese uses:

  • 在家 = at home

without a measure word.

You would only say something like 在一个家里, 在那家里, etc. when you really mean “in a certain home / in that home (household)”, not just at home in general.

So in this context:

  • 在家玩游戏 = play games at home
    No measure word is needed because 家 is behaving like home, not a home.
Why is there no 在 before 公园? Why is it 来公园打篮球 instead of 在公园打篮球?

These are two different structures:

  1. 来公园打篮球

    • 来 = come
    • 公园 = park
    • 打篮球 = play basketball

    The structure is:
    来 + place + do something
    → (She) comes to the park to play basketball.
    The focus is on the movement and its purpose.

  2. 在公园打篮球

    • 在公园 = at/in the park
    • 打篮球 = play basketball

    Structure:
    在 + place + verb
    → (She) plays basketball in the park.
    The focus is on where the action happens, not the coming/going.

In the original sentence, the contrast is between two choices of activity/place:

  • 不在家玩游戏 — not stay at home and play games
  • 而是每天来公园打篮球 — but instead come to the park every day to play basketball

So the use of 来公园打篮球 emphasizes that she actively goes out to the park (rather than staying at home).

Why is there no 了 or anything marking tense? How do we know this is about a repeated habit and not a single event?

Chinese does not mark tense the way English does. Instead, it relies heavily on:

  • time words (like 每天, 昨天, 明天),
  • aspect particles (like 了, 过, 着),
  • and context.

Here, 每天 (every day) clearly shows we’re talking about a habitual, repeated action:

  • 每天来公园打篮球
    = (She) comes to the park every day to play basketball.

Habitual actions in Chinese normally do not use 了. So:

  • 她每天来公园打篮球。
    is a standard way to say she does this regularly.

If we were describing a completed one-time action, we might use 了, but with 每天 it would be incorrect or at least very odd.

Can 每天 be moved to another place in the sentence? For example: 她每天来公园打篮球 vs 每天她来公园打篮球?

Yes, 每天 is fairly flexible, but there are preferences:

Common, very natural:

  • 她每天来公园打篮球。
    Subject 她
    • time word 每天
      • verb phrase.
        Very standard word order.

In the original sentence, the subject 她 is omitted in the second clause:

  • 而是每天来公园打篮球。
    Time word 每天 comes before the verb 来; this is also very natural.

Less natural / marked:

  • 每天她来公园打篮球。
    This is grammatical but has a slightly different feel; it can sound like:
    • Every day, she comes to the park to play basketball
      with a bit more emphasis on “every day” as the topic.

So:

  • [subject] + 每天 + verb…
  • or 每天 + verb… (when subject is clear or omitted)

are the most typical patterns. The original placement of 每天 is perfectly normal and idiomatic.