Learn Hardcore Chinese: tā cónglái bù zài wǎnshang hē kāfēi, juéde kāfēi tài kǔ, hē wán yǐhòu yě shuìbuzháo. - He never drinks coffee at night; he feels coffee is too bitter, and after drinking it he can’t fall asleep.

在晚上 works as a prepositional time phrase “at night”.
But if you drop 在, you should move 晚上 to the time position (before the adverb / verb), not keep it after 不.

Basic word order guideline:

Subject + (Time) + (Frequency words like 从来) + 不/没 + Verb + Object

Why is the word order 在晚上喝咖啡, not 喝咖啡在晚上 like in English “drink coffee at night”?

Chinese typically puts time and place before the verb, while English often puts them after.

Typical order:

Subject + Time + Place + Verb + Object

So:

他在晚上喝咖啡。
→ Subject 他 + Time 在晚上 + Verb 喝 + Object 咖啡

喝咖啡在晚上 is not natural standard Chinese. The “when/where” information almost always goes before the main verb phrase.

Why is there no subject in the second and third parts: 觉得咖啡太苦，喝完以后也睡不着?

Chinese often drops the subject when it’s obvious from context.

Full, explicit version would be:

他从来不在晚上喝咖啡，他觉得咖啡太苦，他喝完以后也睡不着。

Because it’s clear we are talking about 他, it is more natural to omit the repeated 他:

他从来不在晚上喝咖啡，觉得咖啡太苦，喝完以后也睡不着。

English normally has to repeat “he”, but Chinese does not. This “subject dropping” happens a lot in connected sentences.

Could we say 晚上(的)时候 instead of just 晚上? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can say both:

他从来不在晚上喝咖啡。
他从来不在晚上的时候喝咖啡。

晚上 alone already works perfectly as a time word.

晚上 → neutral, simple “at night”.
晚上的时候 → feels a bit more descriptive / slightly longer, like “at night / at nighttime / at night (when it’s night)”.

In most everyday sentences, 晚上 by itself is enough and more common.

Why use 觉得 here and not 想? Don’t they both mean “think”?

觉得 (juéde) and 想 (xiǎng) both relate to “thinking”, but they are used differently.

觉得 = to feel / to have an opinion / to find (something) …
- 他觉得咖啡太苦。
  → He finds coffee too bitter / He feels coffee is too bitter.
想 = to think (about), to want, to plan, to miss
- 我在想明天做什么。 → I’m thinking about what to do tomorrow.
- 我想喝咖啡。 → I want to drink coffee.
- 我想你。 → I miss you.

In this sentence we’re talking about his personal feeling/opinion of coffee, so 觉得 is the right verb.

What is the nuance of 太苦? How is it different from 很苦?

Both use an adjective 苦 (bitter), but:

太苦 (tài kǔ) = too bitter / overly bitter → usually negative/complaining.
很苦 (hěn kǔ) = very bitter → often neutral description.

In spoken Chinese, 太 + adj (without 了) almost always carries a negative / complaining tone:

咖啡太苦。
→ The coffee is too bitter (for his liking).

If you said:

咖啡很苦。
→ The coffee is very bitter (could be neutral or just descriptive).

So 太苦 matches his dislike of the taste.

What does 喝完 add here? How is 喝完以后 different from just 喝了以后 or 喝以后?

完 (wán) after a verb is a result complement meaning “to finish doing something, to complete it”.

喝完 (hēwán) = to finish drinking (all of it).

以后 (yǐhòu) means “after”.

So:

喝完以后 = after he has finished drinking (it completely).

If you say:

喝了以后
→ after (he) drank (it) – just states it happened; no special focus on finishing all of it.
喝以后
→ not idiomatic. You need something like 喝了以后 or 喝完以后 or 喝咖啡以后.

In this sentence, 喝完以后 emphasizes the whole cup is finished, and after that point, he can’t fall asleep.

Why is there no object after 喝 in 喝完以后? Shouldn’t it be 喝完咖啡以后?

The object 咖啡 is understood from context and can be dropped.

Earlier in the sentence we already mentioned:

… 晚上喝咖啡，觉得咖啡太苦，喝完以后也睡不着。

It’s clear that 喝完 refers to 喝完咖啡.

In Chinese, when the object is obvious and just repeated, it is often omitted to make the sentence shorter and more natural. Writing 喝完咖啡以后 is also correct, just slightly more explicit.

What exactly does 睡不着 mean? How is it different from just 不睡觉?

睡不着 (shuìbuzháo) = cannot fall asleep (even though you’re trying).
- Focus is on failure to achieve the result of “falling asleep”.
不睡觉 (bú shuìjiào) = doesn’t sleep / won’t sleep.
- Could be a choice or refusal, not necessarily inability.

Here, he wants to sleep but can’t, because of the coffee. So 睡不着 is the natural choice.

Grammar-wise, 睡不着 =

Verb 睡 + 不 + Result complement 着
→ “can’t achieve the state/result of being asleep”

Can you explain the grammar pattern of 睡不着 a bit more?

睡不着 is an example of potential / resultative complement structure:

Verb + 得 / 不 + Result complement

得 → can achieve the result
不 → cannot achieve the result

Examples:

睡得着 / 睡不着 → can / can’t fall asleep
看得见 / 看不见 → can / can’t see
吃得完 / 吃不完 → can / can’t finish eating (all of it)

So:

他喝完以后也睡不着。
→ After he finishes drinking (coffee), he also can’t fall asleep.

What does 也 do in 喝完以后也睡不着? Why is it placed there?

也 (yě) means “also / too”.

Here the structure is:

(他) 喝完以后也睡不着。
Subject (implied) + Time phrase + 也 + Verb phrase

It means:

Not only does he find coffee too bitter,
he also can’t fall asleep after drinking it.

So 也 is adding a second negative consequence (on top of “coffee is too bitter”).

You generally put 也 right before the main verb phrase it modifies:

我也觉得咖啡太苦。
喝完以后也睡不着。

Could I connect the clauses with 因为 to make the cause more explicit?

Yes. The original uses commas and relies on logical order to show cause and effect. You can make it more explicit:

他从来不在晚上喝咖啡，因为觉得咖啡太苦，喝完以后也睡不着。
他从来不在晚上喝咖啡，因为咖啡太苦，喝完以后也睡不着。

Even more explicit:

他从来不在晚上喝咖啡，因为他觉得咖啡太苦，而且喝完以后也睡不着。

All of these are grammatical. The original is just more concise and natural in everyday speech: it lists the reasons in a row, separated by commas.

How do we know this sentence is talking about a general habit and not just one particular night?

Two main clues:

从来不 → expresses “never (as a rule / habit)”.
There is no past-tense marker like 了 tied to a specific time; the whole thing describes what he typically does and experiences.

So the default reading is:

In general, as a rule, he never drinks coffee at night, because he finds it too bitter and also can’t fall asleep after drinking it.