Learn Hardcore Chinese: zhōumò wǒ hé dìdi zài gōngyuán tī zúqiú. - On weekends my younger brother and I play soccer in the park.

Putting 周末 at the start is the default way to say “on the weekend” in Chinese. You could move it, but 周末我和弟弟在公园踢足球 is the most natural, neutral order.

Why is there no word like “on” before 周末? Why not 在周末 or something similar?

Chinese often doesn’t use a preposition equivalent to English “on” for time words.

周末我和弟弟在公园踢足球。
– Literally: “Weekend, I and younger brother at park play football.”

You can say 在周末, but:

在周末 is more formal and not as common in everyday speech for a simple statement like this.
In normal conversation, just using the time word alone (周末, 明天, 晚上, etc.) at the beginning is very natural.

So:

周末我去公园。 (Very natural.)
在周末我去公园。 (Correct but more formal/bookish.)

Why is 在 (zài) used before 公园 (gōngyuán, park)? What exactly is 在 doing here?

在 here means “at / in” and marks the location of an action.

Pattern: 在 + place + Verb + Object

在公园踢足球 = “play soccer at the park.”

So in this sentence:

我和弟弟在公园踢足球。
– “My younger brother and I play soccer at the park.”

Without 在, it would sound like “the park plays soccer” is part of the verb phrase; the location would be unclear. 在 clearly shows that 公园 is the place where 踢足球 happens.

In English we say “my younger brother,” but in Chinese it’s just 弟弟. Why is there no 我 or 我的 before 弟弟?

Chinese often drops possessive words (like “my”) when:

The relationship is close and obvious (family members, body parts, etc.).
The context already makes it clear whose thing/person it is.

Here, 我和弟弟 strongly implies “my younger brother and I.”
Adding 我的弟弟 is possible but sounds:

more contrastive (“my younger brother, not someone else’s”)
or slightly more formal/emphatic.

In everyday conversation, 我和弟弟 is the natural choice.

Does 弟弟 (dìdi) mean “younger brother” specifically, or can it mean just “brother” in general?

弟弟 always means younger brother.

Chinese distinguishes siblings by relative age:

哥哥 (gēge) – older brother
弟弟 (dìdi) – younger brother
姐姐 (jiějie) – older sister
妹妹 (mèimei) – younger sister

So if you say 弟弟, you’re clearly saying younger brother. There isn’t one single general word for “brother” like English; you usually have to indicate older/younger.

How is 和 (hé) used here? Can it be used to connect whole sentences like English “and”?

In this sentence, 和 is used to connect nouns / noun phrases:

我和弟弟 – “my younger brother and I”

As a rule of thumb:

和 is good for linking things/people: 我和你, 苹果和香蕉, 中国和美国.
It is not usually used to join whole sentences or clauses, unlike English “and.”

For example:

English: “I went to the park and played soccer.”
Chinese usually: 我去了公园，然后踢了足球。 (然后 / 还 / 就 etc., not 和)

So use 和 mainly between nouns, not between independent actions or sentences.

The Chinese sentence doesn’t show tense. How do we know if it means “played soccer” (past) or “play soccer” (habitually)?

Chinese generally doesn’t mark tense with verb endings the way English does. Instead, it relies on:

Context
Time words (昨天, 周末, 明天, etc.)
Aspect particles like 了, 过, 着 when needed

周末我和弟弟在公园踢足球。 can mean:

“On weekends, my younger brother and I (usually) play soccer at the park.” (habit)
“This weekend, my younger brother and I are going to play soccer at the park.” (future)
“Last weekend, my younger brother and I played soccer at the park.” (past)

If you want to emphasize that it already happened, you might say:

上个周末我和弟弟在公园踢了足球。
– 上个周末 = last weekend; 了 marks completed action.

So tense is inferred; it’s not built into the verb form.

Why is it 踢足球 (tī zúqiú) instead of just 足球? In English we can say “We soccer” in no way, we need “play,” but why is the verb so fixed in Chinese?

Just like English needs a verb (“play”), Chinese also needs a verb to show the action:

踢足球 = kick + soccer = “play soccer”

You cannot say 我足球; that’s incomplete. The usual verbs for sports:

踢足球 – play soccer (literally “kick soccer ball”)
打篮球 – play basketball (literally “hit basketball”)
打网球 – play tennis
游泳 – swim (no object needed)

So here 踢 is required to express the action of playing the sport. The verb + object pairing is quite fixed and must be learned as a chunk.

Could we say 玩足球 (wán zúqiú) instead of 踢足球? Both “玩” and “踢” relate to playing or having fun, right?

玩 (wán) means “to play, to have fun” in a general sense.

For sports, however, Chinese usually uses specific verbs:

踢足球 – play soccer
打篮球 – play basketball
打乒乓球 – play ping-pong

Native speakers almost always say 踢足球, not 玩足球.

You can say things like:

我们在公园玩。 – “We’re having fun/playing in the park.” (general)

But when naming the specific sport “soccer/football,” 踢足球 is the natural expression.

Is the word order 我和弟弟在公园 fixed, or could I say 我在公园和弟弟踢足球 instead?

Some flexibility is possible, but not all orders sound equally natural.

Original:

周末我和弟弟在公园踢足球。
– Time – Subject – Place – Verb – Object (very standard).

Alternatives:

周末我在公园和弟弟踢足球。
– Grammatically OK but slightly awkward; sounds like the location is strongly tied to “me” only.
周末我和弟弟踢足球在公园。
– Sounds unnatural; place normally comes before the verb in this pattern.
周末在公园我和弟弟踢足球。
– Possible in some contexts for emphasis on the place (“At the park, my brother and I play soccer”), but it’s marked/less neutral.

For a beginner, stick to:
Time + Subject + 在 + Place + Verb + Object
→ 周末我和弟弟在公园踢足球。

Why is there no measure word before 公园 (park), like 一个公园? Don’t Chinese nouns usually need measure words?

Measure words are needed when you:

count something, or
specify how many or which one.

Examples:

一个公园 – one park
那个公园 – that park

In the sentence 在公园踢足球, 公园 is used as a general location, not as “one park” as a counted object. When a place word just tells where something happens, you often don’t use a measure word:

在学校学习 – study at school
在家休息 – rest at home
在公园踢足球 – play soccer in the park

So no classifier is needed here.

Could I say 在周末我和弟弟在公园踢足球 with two 在’s? Is that correct or redundant?

在周末我和弟弟在公园踢足球。 is grammatically okay, but:

The first 在周末 sounds more formal or written.
Using 在 twice is not wrong, but it’s a bit heavier than needed in normal speech.

Everyday, natural version:

周末我和弟弟在公园踢足球。

Use just the time word at the front (周末, 明天, 星期天, etc.) and keep 在 only before the place phrase.

Is 周末 referring to “this weekend,” “last weekend,” or “weekends in general”? How do I make that clearer in Chinese?

On its own, 周末 is ambiguous; context decides whether it’s:

this coming weekend,
last weekend (if you’re telling a past story), or
weekends in general (a habit).

To be precise, you can use:

上个周末 – last weekend
这个周末 – this weekend
下个周末 – next weekend
周末的时候 / 周末一般 – “on weekends (in general)”

Examples:

上个周末我和弟弟在公园踢了足球。 – Last weekend we played soccer at the park.
周末我一般和弟弟在公园踢足球。 – On weekends, I usually play soccer with my younger brother at the park.

Is it okay to say 周末，我和弟弟在公园踢足球。 with a comma after 周末?

Yes. In writing, Chinese often uses a comma after a time or place phrase at the beginning of the sentence:

周末，我和弟弟在公园踢足球。

It’s mainly a punctuation/style choice; the spoken sentence is the same. Without the comma, it’s also fine:

周末我和弟弟在公园踢足球。

Both are correct; for learners, you can view them as equivalent in meaning.