Breakdown of zuótiān xiàwǔ xiàozhǎng zài jiàoxuélóu ménkǒu gēn jiāzhǎng men liáotiān.
Questions & Answers about zuótiān xiàwǔ xiàozhǎng zài jiàoxuélóu ménkǒu gēn jiāzhǎng men liáotiān.
Chinese normally prefers the order:
Time → (Place) → Subject → (Place) → Verb → Object
So 昨天下午 校长 在教学楼门口 跟家长们 聊天 follows a very typical pattern:
- 昨天下午 – when
- 校长 – who
- 在教学楼门口 – where
- 跟家长们聊天 – what he did, with whom
You can move the time in Chinese, but starting with time is the most natural:
- 昨天下午，校长在教学楼门口跟家长们聊天。 ✅ most natural
- 校长昨天下午在教学楼门口跟家长们聊天。 ✅ ok, just a slightly different emphasis
Putting the time at the very end, like English often does, is usually unnatural in Chinese:
- ✗ 校长在教学楼门口跟家长们聊天昨天下午。 (sounds wrong)
In this sentence, 在 is marking location, not the “-ing” aspect.
Structure here:
- 在 + place → “at/in/on (place)”
- 在教学楼门口 → “at the entrance of the teaching building”
So:
- 校长在教学楼门口聊天。
Literally: “The principal is at the teaching building entrance chatting.”
If 在 were used as an aspect marker (progressive “be doing”), the structure would be:
- 在 + verb
e.g. 校长在聊天 – “The principal is chatting.”
In your sentence, 在 is followed by 教学楼门口 (a place), not a verb, so it’s a location marker / stative verb meaning “to be located at.”
Chinese usually does not use 是 to form “was doing” the way English does.
Key points:
- 是 is not a general helping verb like English “be.”
- 是 mainly links A = B:
- 他是老师。– “He is a teacher.”
- Location and ongoing actions normally use 在 or aspect particles, not 是.
In your sentence:
- 校长在教学楼门口 … 聊天。 already expresses:
- subject: 校长
- location: 在教学楼门口
- action: 聊天
Adding 是 here (校长是在教学楼门口…) would sound like heavy emphasis or contrast:
- 校长是在教学楼门口跟家长们聊天，不是在办公室。
“The principal was chatting with parents at the entrance, not in the office.”
So for a neutral statement, no 是 is needed or expected.
Here 跟 means “with” (indicating the person you’re interacting with):
- 跟家长们聊天 – “chat with the parents”
About 跟 vs 和:
- In this kind of sentence, 跟 and 和 are usually interchangeable:
- 跟家长们聊天
- 和家长们聊天
Both are fine and common.
- Many people feel 跟 sounds a bit more colloquial in spoken Chinese, but the difference is small.
Note: 跟 can also mean “to follow,” but that meaning doesn’t apply here. In this sentence it’s clearly the preposition “with.”
们 is a plural marker for people, mostly after pronouns and many human nouns:
- 我 → 我们 – we
- 学生 → 学生们 – the students
- 家长 → 家长们 – (the) parents (plural)
In 家长们, it indicates that we’re talking about multiple parents.
Subtlety:
- 家长 (without 们) can already mean “parents (as a group)” in many contexts:
- 家长来学校了。
This can naturally mean “(the) parents came to school.”
- 家长来学校了。
- 家长们 usually highlights plurality more explicitly, something like “the (various) parents,” or “a bunch of parents.”
In this sentence, 家长们 fits well because a principal is likely chatting with several parents standing there, not just one.
Both forms are possible, but they feel slightly different:
教学楼门口 (no 的)
- Acts like a fixed place word: “the entrance of the teaching building”
- Very natural, especially when the first noun is a place/building and the second is a location word like:
- 门口 (entrance)
- 旁边 (beside)
- 前面 (in front of)
- 里面 (inside)
Examples:
- 学校门口 – school gate/entrance
- 教室里 – inside the classroom
教学楼的门口 (with 的)
- A bit more explicit or slightly more formal: “the entrance of the teaching building”
- Still perfectly correct here.
So you can say:
- 校长在教学楼门口聊天。 ✅
- 校长在教学楼的门口聊天。 ✅
They mean the same thing; the version without 的 is just more typical and slightly smoother in everyday speech.
These three words refer to different “levels” of place:
学校 (xuéxiào) – school
- The whole institution/campus.
教学楼 (jiàoxuélóu) – teaching building, the main classroom building
- A multi-floor building where most classes are held.
教室 (jiàoshì) – classroom
- A single room where teaching happens.
So:
- 在学校门口 – at the school gate
- 在教学楼门口 – at the entrance of the teaching building
- 在教室门口 – at the classroom door
Your sentence is specifically at the teaching building entrance, not just anywhere at the school.
All three involve talking, but with different feels:
聊天 (liáotiān) – “to chat, to have a casual conversation”
- Informal, relaxed, back-and-forth.
- Implies no big agenda: just talking casually.
说话 (shuōhuà) – “to talk / to speak”
- Very general; can be neutral or serious.
- Could be any kind of talking (answering questions, making comments, etc.).
讲话 (jiǎnghuà) – “to give a speech / to address people / to talk (more formally)”
- Often used for more formal speaking:
- 校长在台上讲话。– The principal is giving a speech on the stage.
- Often used for more formal speaking:
So 聊天 here suggests:
- The principal is not lecturing the parents,
- but rather having casual conversations with them.
Several positions are grammatical, but they feel slightly different. Common, natural options:
- 昨天下午，校长在教学楼门口跟家长们聊天。
- Time at the start = very typical, neutral.
- 校长昨天下午在教学楼门口跟家长们聊天。
- Slightly more focus on “The principal (yesterday afternoon) was at that place chatting…”
Less natural or wrong:
- ✗ 校长在教学楼门口昨天下午跟家长们聊天。
Time and place become jumbled; sounds off. - ✗ 校长在教学楼门口跟家长们聊天昨天下午。
Time at very end like English – ungrammatical in standard Mandarin.
Rule of thumb:
Put time early, before the subject or right after it, not at the end.
Native speakers do not say it that way in standard Mandarin.
Compare:
校长在教学楼门口跟家长们聊天。 ✅
- 在教学楼门口 – “at the entrance of the teaching building” (location)
- 聊天 – “chat”
校长在跟家长们聊天。 ✅
- 在
- verb phrase 跟家长们聊天 – progressive “is (currently) chatting”
- 在
But combining both like:
- ✗ 校长在教学楼门口跟家长们在聊天。
gives two 在 markers with different roles and sounds awkward or wrong. If you want both a location and the progressive feeling, you just keep the location 在 and context/time adverbials give the “was doing” feeling:
- 昨天下午，校长在教学楼门口跟家长们聊天。
“Yesterday afternoon, the principal was (there) chatting with parents.”
The past/progressive meaning comes from 昨天下午 + context, not from adding another 在.
Yes, both relate to “parents,” but they’re used differently:
父母 (fùmǔ)
- Literally “father and mother”
- Refers specifically to one’s biological or legal parents.
- More about the family role.
家长 (jiāzhǎng)
- Literally “head of the family/household”
- In modern usage, especially in education, it means the parent or guardian of a student.
- Emphasis on the role in relation to the child/school (the responsible adult).
At school:
- Teachers and principals talk about 家长 when they mean “students’ parents (and guardians)” collectively.
- They normally wouldn’t say 父母们 when referring to the group waiting at the school gate; they say 家长们.
So in your sentence, 家长们 is exactly what a principal would be talking with outside a school building.
Measure words are needed mainly when you:
- specify a number:
- 一个校长 – one principal
- 三个家长 – three parents
- or say “this/that”:
- 这个校长 – this principal
- 那些家长 – those parents
In your sentence, you’re talking about them in general, not counting them:
- 校长 – “the principal” (there is usually only one in a school, so it’s clear)
- 家长们 – “the parents” (some group of parents)
Because no number or demonstrative (this/that) is used, no classifier is required:
- 校长在教学楼门口跟家长们聊天。 ✅
- 一个校长在教学楼门口跟三个家长聊天。 ✅ (now we are counting, so we add 个)
Two natural options:
昨天上午，校长在教学楼门口跟家长们聊天了。
- 了 after the verb phrase
- Focuses on the action having taken place/completed.
- Roughly: “Yesterday afternoon, the principal did chat with the parents (at the entrance).”
昨天下午，校长在教学楼门口跟家长们聊了天。
- Split 聊天 into 聊 (verb) + 天 (object): “chat (words)”
- Put 了 after 聊:
- 聊了天 = “chatted (for a while)”
- Feels very natural and idiomatic.
Without 了, as in the original:
- 昨天下午，校长在教学楼门口跟家长们聊天。
the past meaning already comes from 昨天下午. The sentence is factual and neutral; 了 is not required, but adding it can emphasize completion or occurrence of the event.