Learn Hardcore Chinese: wǒ yǒushíhou zài kāfēiguǎn lǐ yìbiān huàhuà, yìbiān shàngwǎng kàn huàjiā de wǎngzhàn, juéde hěn fàngsōng. - Sometimes I draw in the café while surfing the internet to look at painters’ websites and feel very relaxed.

Sounds more casual and activity-like, like “do some drawing / do some painting”
Often suggests an ongoing or leisurely activity, not a single, focused action

You could say:

我在画。= “I am drawing (right now).” – more neutral
我在画画。= “I’m (there, just) drawing / doing some drawing.” – a bit more relaxed, hobby-like

In this sentence, 画画 fits the idea of a relaxing, habitual activity you sometimes do in a café, rather than a single, serious act of drawing.

What exactly does 有时候 (yǒushíhou) do here, and where can it go in the sentence?

有时候 means “sometimes.” It’s a time-frequency word describing how often you do the action.

In this sentence:

我 有时候 在咖啡馆里一边画画，一边上网看画家的网站，觉得很放松。

The basic word order rule is:

Subject + Time + Place + (Manner) + Verb …

So:

Subject: 我
Time: 有时候
Place: 在咖啡馆里
Actions: 一边画画，一边上网看画家的网站 …

You could also say:

有时候，我在咖啡馆里一边画画，一边上网看画家的网站。
(Putting 有时候 at the very beginning for emphasis.)

Other variants you might see:

有时 (yǒushí) – a bit shorter, slightly more formal/literary
有的时候 (yǒu de shíhou) – feels a bit more spoken/emphatic

All three mean “sometimes”; 有时候 is a very common, neutral choice in speech.

Why do we have both 在 and 里 in 在咖啡馆里? Could we drop one of them?

在 (zài) marks the location of an action: “at / in / on.”
里 (lǐ) means “inside.”

So:

在咖啡馆里 literally: “at (inside) the café.”

Common variants:

在咖啡馆里 – emphasizes being inside the café
在咖啡馆 – also correct; “at the café,” and often naturally implies “inside”
咖啡馆里 (without 在) – possible in some structures, but before a verb phrase you normally include 在:
- 我在咖啡馆里画画。✅
- 我咖啡馆里画画。❌ (sounds wrong)

So in this sentence you could say:

我有时候在咖啡馆里一边画画，一边上网… ✅
我有时候在咖啡馆一边画画，一边上网… ✅ (a bit shorter, also natural)

Both are fine; adding 里 just makes “inside” explicit.

Is 在 here (在咖啡馆里) the same 在 that marks the progressive, like 我在画画 = “I am drawing”?

It’s the same word 在, but it has two related uses:

Location marker:
- 我在咖啡馆里。= “I am in the café.”
- 我在咖啡馆里画画。= “I draw (am drawing) in the café.”
Progressive marker (ongoing action) with 在 placed before the verb:
- 我在画画。= “I am drawing (right now).”

In this sentence, 在 is clearly a location marker, because it’s directly before a place word:

我有时候 在咖啡馆里 一边画画，一边上网…

If you wanted to emphasize “am (currently) doing it” you’d say something like:

我现在在咖啡馆里，在一边画画，一边上网看画家的网站。
(Here the second 在 would be the progressive 在, but that sounds a bit heavy; normally you just use 一边…一边… to show ongoing simultaneity.)

How does the structure 一边…，一边… work? Does it just mean “and”?

一边…一边… (yìbiān… yìbiān…) means “doing A while doing B” – two actions happening at the same time.

Pattern:

Subject + 一边 + Verb Phrase 1，一边 + Verb Phrase 2

In context:

我有时候在咖啡馆里 一边画画，一边上网看画家的网站。

Meaning: “I sometimes, in the café, draw while (also) surfing the internet and looking at artists’ websites.”

Points to remember:

It implies simultaneous actions, not just a simple “and.”
The subject (我) appears once at the beginning and is shared by both 一边-clauses.
You usually only use two 一边-phrases in one sentence.

Compare:

我画画，也上网看画家的网站。
= “I draw and also go online to look at artists’ websites.” (no clear sense of “at the same time”)

So 一边…一边… is specifically for “A while B.”

In 一边画画，一边上网看画家的网站, why is 上网 before 看? Could I say 一边画画，一边看画家的网站上网?

You cannot say 看画家的网站上网; that’s ungrammatical.

Here, the structure is:

上网看画家的网站 = “go online and look at artists’ websites”

More literally: “be on the internet to look at artists’ websites.”
上网 (shàngwǎng) is “to go online / be on the internet,” and 看 (kàn) is the main action while you are online.

The natural orders are:

一边画画，一边上网看画家的网站。✅
一边画画，一边看画家的网站。✅ (just omit 上网; still fine)
一边画画，一边在网上看画家的网站。✅ (“on the internet” explicitly)

But:

一边画画，一边看画家的网站上网。 ❌ (word order is wrong; 上网 can’t go at the end like that)

What exactly does 上网 (shàngwǎng) mean here?

上网 literally is “go onto the net,” so it means:

to go online / use the internet / surf the web.

In this sentence:

一边上网看画家的网站

“to go online and look at artists’ websites / browse artists’ websites online.”

You’ll often see patterns like:

上网查资料 = go online to look up information
上网聊天 = go online to chat
上网购物 = shop online

So 上网 is a general “go online” verb that can be combined with more specific actions.

In 画家的网站, what is 的 doing? Could we say it without 的?

的 (de) here is the usual possessive / modifier marker, linking a modifier and a noun:

画家 (huàjiā) = artist / painter
网站 (wǎngzhàn) = website
画家的网站 = “artists’ website(s) / the website(s) of artists”

Structure:

[modifier] + 的 + [noun]

You almost always need 的 between a noun and another noun when the first one is “owner / type / category” of the second:

学生的书 = the student’s book
中国的文化 = Chinese culture
画家的作品 = an artist’s works

You cannot say 画家网站 in normal speech. It sounds unnatural or like a compressed, technical label. So 画家的网站 is the normal, correct form here.

Does 画家的网站 mean one website or many websites? There’s no plural -s, so how do we know?

Chinese normally doesn’t mark plural on nouns the way English does. So:

画家的网站
can be interpreted in context as:
- “an artist’s website,”
- “artists’ websites,” or
- “the artists’ website(s).”

In this sentence, the meaning would usually be understood from real-life context:

上网看画家的网站
= “go online and look at artists’ websites (in general)”
or “look at some artists’ websites.”

If you really want to stress “many,” you can say:

上网看一些画家的网站。= look at some artists’ websites
上网看很多画家的网站。= look at many artists’ websites

Why do we need 很 before 放松 in 觉得很放松? Could we just say 觉得放松?

In Chinese, many adjectives function as “stative verbs” (like “to be tall / to be relaxed”). In a simple Subject + Adjective sentence, you usually add a degree adverb like 很 (hěn), 真, 非常, etc.

我很放松。= “I (am) relaxed.” (neutral statement)
我放松。 – This can sound incomplete, or suggest a contrast like “I do relax (as opposed to others).”

So in:

觉得很放松

很:

Acts as a degree word (“very / quite / really”), though in many cases it’s not strongly emphatic; and
Smooths the grammar, making 觉得 + adjective sound natural.

You can say 觉得放松 in some contexts (for example, when it’s directly followed by something else), but 觉得很放松 is more idiomatic and neutral, especially as a standalone feeling:

在那儿画画，让我觉得很放松。✅ (very natural)

Is 放松 (fàngsōng) here an adjective or a verb?

放松 can be both:

Verb: “to relax, to loosen (up)”
- 放松一下！= Relax a bit!
- 听音乐可以放松自己。= Listening to music can relax oneself.
Adjective / stative verb: “to be relaxed”
- 我现在很放松。= I am very relaxed.

In 觉得很放松, it’s functioning as a state / adjective:
> “(I) feel very relaxed.”

The underlying structure is:

我觉得我很放松。
→ (subject 我 is omitted the second time) →
觉得很放松。

Why is there no subject before 觉得? Shouldn’t it be 我觉得?

Full form:

我有时候在咖啡馆里一边画画，一边上网看画家的网站，我觉得很放松。

The second 我 is understood and very natural to drop in Chinese, especially when it’s the same subject as before and the clauses are closely connected.

So:

我有时候在咖啡馆里一边画画，一边上网看画家的网站，觉得很放松。
= “Sometimes I … and (I) feel very relaxed.”

Chinese often omits repeated subjects when it’s clear from context. English usually has to repeat “I,” but Mandarin is comfortable leaving it out here.

Is there any tense marker in this sentence? How do we know it’s about a habitual action like “I sometimes do X,” not just one time?

Chinese doesn’t have verb tenses like -ed / will / -s in the same way English does. Instead, it uses:

Time expressions: 有时候 = sometimes
Context: a coffee-shop activity that sounds like a habit

So:

我有时候在咖啡馆里一边画画，一边上网看画家的网站…

is naturally understood as a habitual or repeated action in general time (roughly “I sometimes…” / “I occasionally…”).

If it were one specific past time, you’d expect explicit time words or aspect markers:

上个星期我在咖啡馆里一边画画，一边上网看画家的网站，觉得很放松。
= “Last week I was in a café, drawing and browsing artists’ websites. I felt very relaxed.”

Why is there a comma ， between 一边画画 and 一边上网看画家的网站 instead of 和 (“and”)?

The comma ， is just punctuation separating the two 一边-clauses:

一边画画，一边上网看画家的网站

You don’t use 和 (hé) in the 一边…一边… pattern, because 一边 itself is the grammatical marker that connects the two simultaneous actions. If you add 和, it becomes incorrect:

一边画画，一边上网看画家的网站。✅
一边画画，和上网看画家的网站。❌

Use 和 to connect nouns or simple verb phrases when you’re just listing them, not to mark simultaneous ongoing actions:

我喜欢咖啡和茶。= I like coffee and tea.
我喜欢画画和上网。= I like drawing and going online.

But for “do A while doing B,” use 一边…一边… (no 和).

Could we change the order to 一边上网看画家的网站，一边画画? Would that still be correct?

Yes. Both orders are grammatically correct:

一边画画，一边上网看画家的网站。✅
一边上网看画家的网站，一边画画。✅

They both mean you’re doing both at the same time.

Subtle differences:

The first action mentioned often feels like the more “background” activity, and the second may feel slightly more in focus—but the difference is small and often not important.
In many contexts, speakers just pick the order that sounds more natural to them; here, “draw while browsing” or “browse while drawing” both make sense.

So you can safely use either order; just keep the 一边…一边… structure intact.