Breakdown of tā xiào zhe shuō, zài jiā yìzhí wán yóuxì de shíhou, chángcháng huì wàngjì shíjiān; zài gōngyuán dǎ lánqiú bùdàn duì jiànkāng hǎo, érqiě kěyǐ tígāo xìnxīn.
Questions & Answers about tā xiào zhe shuō, zài jiā yìzhí wán yóuxì de shíhou, chángcháng huì wàngjì shíjiān; zài gōngyuán dǎ lánqiú bùdàn duì jiànkāng hǎo, érqiě kěyǐ tígāo xìnxīn.
着 is a grammatical particle that marks a continuous state. In 笑着说, it means she is smiling while she is speaking. So:
- 她笑着说 ≈ “She said, smiling” / “She said with a smile.”
The smiling is a background, ongoing action; the main action is “say”.
If you change it:
- 她笑了说 – sounds odd. 了 usually marks a completed action, so this would feel like “after she smiled, she said…”, but native speakers don’t phrase it this way.
- 她笑说 – not natural in modern spoken Chinese. You’d say:
- 她笑着说
- 她笑着地说话
- 她笑了笑，说… (“She smiled and said…” – two separate actions)
So 着 here signals that the action of 笑 (smiling) is ongoing and accompanies the main verb 说 (speaking).
在 marks location (“at / in”) and turns 家, 公园 into “at home”, “in the park”:
- 在家一直玩游戏的时候 – “when (she’s) at home constantly playing games”
- 在公园打篮球 – “playing basketball in the park”
If you remove 在:
- 家一直玩游戏的时候 – sounds like “the home is always playing games” (ungrammatical / weird).
- 公园打篮球 alone is acceptable as a short phrase in some contexts, but 在公园打篮球 is the normal way to say “play basketball in the park”.
In general, for “doing something at/in a place”, the basic pattern is:
在 + place + Verb(+Object) → 在公园打篮球, 在家看书, 在学校学习.
的时候 literally means “the time when …”.
- 在家一直玩游戏 = “(to) be at home constantly playing games”
- 在家一直玩游戏的时候 = “the time when (she is) at home constantly playing games” → “when she stays home and keeps playing games”
The 的 turns the whole preceding clause into a noun-like phrase (“the time of …”), and 时候 (“time/moment”) is that noun:
- （她）在家一直玩游戏 → verb clause
- （她）在家一直玩游戏
- 的 → “(the) ‘at home constantly playing games’ one”
- （她）在家一直玩游戏的时候 → “the time when she is at home constantly playing games”
Yes, you can say …玩游戏时 instead of …玩游戏的时候.
- 时候 is more common and neutral.
- 时 is shorter and more formal/literary.
So 在家一直玩游戏时 is grammatically fine, just a bit more formal in feel.
In the sentence:
- 在家一直玩游戏的时候
- 常常会忘记时间
they describe different things:
- 一直 = “continuously / all the time (over a stretch of time)”
- 一直玩游戏 – “keep playing games non-stop / for a long time.”
- 常常 = “often / frequently (repeated occurrences)”
- 常常会忘记时间 – “often ends up forgetting the time” (this happens repeatedly on different days).
So the idea is:
When she stays at home and keeps playing games for a long time (一直), she often (常常) forgets the time (this outcome happens many times in her life).
总是 (“always”) would be stronger:
- 总是忘记时间 – “always forgets the time” (almost without exception), which is not exactly what the Chinese sentence says.
Yes, you can say 常常忘记时间. It’s grammatically correct.
会 here adds a sense of tendency / likelihood:
- 常常忘记时间 – “often forgets the time.”
- 常常会忘记时间 – “will often (end up) forgetting the time / tends to forget the time.”
Both are very common. With 会, it sounds slightly more like:
Under those circumstances, this is what will typically happen.
It’s similar to English “will” in general statements:
- “If I stay at home and play games for a long time, I’ll often lose track of time.”
In this context:
- 忘记时间 = “forget the (passing of) time / lose track of time”
- 时候 means “(a period/point of) time; when…”, used in phrases like:
- 什么时候？ – “When?”
- 小的时候 – “when (I) was little”
You normally say:
- 忘记时间 – natural
- 忘了时间 – very common spoken version
But 忘记时候 is not idiomatic for “lose track of time”.
Here, she loses awareness of time itself (how much time has passed), not of a specific occasion or moment, so 时间 is the right word.
不但…而且… = “not only … but also …”.
In the sentence:
- 在公园打篮球
不但对健康好，
而且可以提高信心。
We can understand the structure as:
“Playing basketball in the park is not only good for her health, but also can increase her confidence.”
Details:
- 不但 introduces the first positive point:
- 不但对健康好 – “not only is it good for (her) health”
- 而且 introduces the second positive point, usually “even more importantly / in addition”:
- 而且可以提高信心 – “but also it can improve (her) confidence.”
You can replace 而且 with 也:
- 不但对健康好，也可以提高信心。 – also correct, a bit more casual.
You can also drop 不但 and just say:
- 对健康好，而且可以提高信心。 – “It’s good for health and can also boost confidence.”
But then you lose the explicit “not only…but also” emphasis.
Chinese often omits the subject when it is clear from context.
Here, the topic is:
- 在公园打篮球 – “playing basketball in the park”
This topic applies to the whole comment that follows:
- 在公园打篮球
不但对健康好，而且可以提高信心。
You can imagine the “full” version as:
- 在公园打篮球，不但对（她的）健康好，而且（在公园打篮球）可以提高（她的）信心。
But repeating all that would sound heavy. So Chinese uses:
- Topic (前面): 在公园打篮球
- Then two statements about that topic, dropping the repeated subject.
This topic-comment style is very common in Chinese.
All of these are possible; they differ in nuance:
对健康好
- Very common, concise, slightly “general-statement” style.
- Literally: “(it is) good toward health.”
对健康很好
- Also correct. The 很 can soften the adjective and sound a bit more spoken / emphatic:
- “really good for health.”
对健康有好处
- Literally: “has benefits for health.”
- Slightly more formal or explanatory, commonly used in writing or in careful speech.
In this sentence, 对健康好 keeps the rhythm short and parallel with 而且可以提高信心. It sounds natural and balanced:
- 不但对健康好，而且可以提高信心。
Yes, you can say:
- 而且提高信心。 – grammatically fine.
可以 usually adds a nuance of possibility / potential / benefit:
- 可以提高信心 – “can increase confidence / is able to boost confidence / has the effect of boosting confidence.”
- 提高信心 alone is more like a bare verb phrase “(it) raises confidence.”
In many contexts, both are interchangeable, but 可以 here emphasizes the beneficial effect that playing basketball can have, not that it will absolutely always increase confidence in every situation.
The natural basic pattern is:
在 + place + Verb-Object
在公园打篮球 – “play basketball in the park.”
So:
- 在公园打篮球 – normal, natural
- 打篮球在公园 – generally unnatural in neutral sentences.
打篮球在公园 might appear only in special, contrastive contexts, e.g.:
- 学习在家，打篮球在公园。
“(I) study at home, (but) play basketball in the park.”
Even there, learning at home, and as for basketball, in the park is the sense. In default word order, the place phrase with 在 comes before the verb.
The semicolon in Chinese (；) is used much like in English: to separate two closely related clauses that are each quite complete and often parallel in structure.
Here the sentence has two parts:
- 在家一直玩游戏的时候，常常会忘记时间；
- 在公园打篮球不但对健康好，而且可以提高信心。
They form a neat contrast:
- “When she stays home and just plays games, she often loses track of time;”
- “(But) playing basketball in the park is not only good for her health but also boosts confidence.”
You could also write them as two sentences with a period:
- …常常会忘记时间。 在公园打篮球不但对健康好…
The semicolon just highlights that they belong together as a paired contrast.
Both describe smiling and speaking at the same time, but the emphasis is slightly different:
她笑着说
- Focus: she is in a smiling state while speaking.
- The smile is like a background; the main event is 说.
她一边笑一边说
- Literally: “She is (at the same time) laughing and (at the same time) speaking.”
- Emphasizes two simultaneous ongoing actions more equally.
- Feels more vivid/animated, like she’s actively laughing out loud while talking.
In many everyday contexts, they can both be translated as “She said with a smile,” but 一边…一边… is usually more dynamic, while …着 is more like “in the state of…”.