Breakdown of Yǒude tóngxué yǐhòu xiǎng dāng lǎoshī, yǒude tóngxué xiǎng dāng zuòjiā.
Questions & Answers about Yǒude tóngxué yǐhòu xiǎng dāng lǎoshī, yǒude tóngxué xiǎng dāng zuòjiā.
In this sentence, 有的同学 means “some (of the) classmates / some students”.
- 有的 literally comes from 有 (“there is/are”) + 的, but as a set phrase before a noun (人, 学生, 同学, etc.) it means “some (among a group just mentioned or obvious from context)”.
- 一些 also means “some”, but it often just means a non-specific quantity, without the same “subset of a known group” feeling.
Compare:
有的同学以后想当老师，有的同学想当作家。
“Among these classmates, some want to be teachers, some want to be writers.” (clear subsets from a known group)一些同学以后想当老师。
“Some classmates want to be teachers.” (just “some,” not necessarily contrasted with another subset)
So 有的 … 有的 … is especially natural for contrasting subsets: “some … (while) some …”.
This is a very common pattern in Chinese:
有的 …，有的 …
“Some …, (while) some …”
The repetition highlights two (or more) different subsets of the same larger group.
- 有的同学以后想当老师，有的同学想当作家。
“Some students want to be teachers, some want to be writers.”
You can omit the second 同学 and still be correct and natural:
- 有的同学以后想当老师，有的想当作家。
But you should keep the second 有的, because that’s part of the contrast pattern. If you drop it, it sounds off:
- ✗ 有的同学以后想当老师，同学想当作家。 (ungrammatical / unnatural)
In the sentence:
- 有的同学以后想当老师
以后 (“in the future / later on”) is placed after 同学 and before 想, but Chinese word order is fairly flexible here. These are all acceptable:
- 有的同学以后想当老师。
- 有的同学想以后当老师。
- 有的同学想当老师以后。 (rare, and usually requires a different context)
The most natural are 1 and 2:
- 以后想当老师: focuses on “in the future, (they) want to be teachers”.
- 想以后当老师: focuses slightly more on the time of becoming a teacher (“want to be a teacher in the future”).
In everyday speech, 以后 usually comes either:
- right after the subject: 有的同学以后想…
- or right after 想: 有的同学想以后…
Your original sentence uses one of the most common positions.
All three can appear with professions, but they’re not always interchangeable:
当 (dāng)
- Core idea: to serve as / to take on the role of.
- Very common with jobs or roles you “take up”:
- 想当老师 – “want to be (serve as) a teacher”
- 当医生 / 当经理 / 当导游
做 (zuò)
- Core idea: to do / to work as.
- Often used with professions too:
- 想做老师 / 想做作家 – “want to work as a teacher/writer”
是 (shì)
- Core idea: to be / to equal.
- Used for identity statements:
- 他是老师。 – “He is a teacher.” (stating what he is now)
- With 想, 想是老师 is generally not used to mean “want to be a teacher.”
In this sentence, 想当老师 / 想当作家 is the most idiomatic, but 想做老师 / 想做作家 would also be natural. 想是老师 is incorrect here.
Because 想 here works like a “modal verb” that takes another verb:
- Pattern: 想 + Verb = “want to do (Verb)”.
In this sentence:
- 当 is the main verb (“to serve as / to work as”).
- 想 is like English “want to”.
So:
- 想当老师 = “want to serve as a teacher” → “want to be a teacher”.
是 is typically used to equate two nouns or pronouns (A is B), not as a verb you “do”:
- 他是老师。 – “He is a teacher.” (statement of fact)
- ✗ 他想是老师。 – This sounds wrong in Chinese.
So you don’t say 想是老师; you say 想当老师 or 想做老师.
Both 以后 and 将来 can mean “in the future,” but there are differences:
以后
- Very common in speech and writing.
- Can mean “afterwards / later on / from some later time onwards”.
- Often tied to a reference point in time, explicit or understood.
- Here: 有的同学以后想当老师 = “Some students, in the future, want to become teachers.”
将来
- More formal or “bookish”; often used for a more distant or ideal future.
- You could say:
- 有的同学将来想当老师。
- This sounds fine, just a bit more formal or “planned future”-sounding.
In your sentence, 以后 is very natural, everyday Chinese. Swapping in 将来 is possible but slightly changes the tone toward “future prospects” or “long-term plans.”
Chinese usually doesn’t mark plural on nouns unless it’s needed for clarity or emphasis.
- 同学 can already mean “classmate / classmates / fellow students,” depending on context.
- With 有的同学, the phrase 有的 already implies “some (plural)”, so you don’t need 们.
Compare:
- 有的同学以后想当老师。 – “Some students want to be teachers.” (plural sense is clear)
- 同学们，请坐下。 – “Class, please sit down.” (addressing the group directly; 们 is common here)
So 有的同学 is standard and natural. You could say 有的同学们, but it sounds redundant and unnatural in most contexts.
When 有的 is used as “some (of …)” before a noun, you normally do not insert a measure word:
- 有的人 – some people
- 有的学生 – some students
- 有的同学 – some classmates
If you put something in between, it usually changes the structure:
- 有的学生 = “some (of the) students”
- 有的学生们 — unnatural / redundant
- 有的一个学生 — “some one student” (very odd)
So the pattern is 有的 + Noun, with no measure word in the middle in this usage.
Both are possible, but they have slightly different feels:
- 学生 – “student” (general, any student)
- 同学 – literally “together-study,” meaning:
- “classmate / schoolmate”
- or used as a generic way to refer to students as a group, especially in schools/universities (like “students” or “you, students”)
Using 同学 here suggests:
- We’re talking about a group of students who share some context, e.g., classmates in one class or grade.
You could say:
- 有的学生以后想当老师，有的学生想当作家。
That’s correct, just not as “classroom-feeling.” 同学 in the original sentence sounds like the speaker is part of or close to that group (e.g., a teacher talking about her class, or a narrator talking about classmates).
Yes, the tone matters a lot.
当 (dāng, first tone) – “to serve as / to act as / to work as.” This is the correct pronunciation for “to be (in the role of)”:
- 当老师, 当作家, 当经理
当 (dàng, fourth tone) – different meanings, e.g.:
- 当作 (dàngzuò) – “to regard as / to treat as”
- 上当 (shàngdàng) – “to be fooled / to be cheated”
In your sentence 想当老师, it must be dāng (first tone), meaning “to serve as / become.”
Yes. In 有的同学, 的 is typically read in neutral tone:
- 有的 → yǒude (third tone + neutral tone)
When 的 functions as a structural particle (like in 我的书, 漂亮的衣服), it’s also often pronounced in neutral tone, especially in spoken Mandarin. So you don’t normally stress it as yǒu-de with a full de2; it’s yǒude, quick and light.
They’re related but not identical:
作家
- Usually means a professional or recognized author, often of literature (novels, essays, etc.).
- Has a sense of “career writer” or “author” as an identity.
作者
- Means “author” of a particular work.
- E.g., the author of an article, a book, a research paper:
- 这篇文章的作者是谁？ – “Who is the author of this article?”
写作者
- More literal: “one who writes”; more formal or technical.
- Not as commonly used in everyday speech for “I want to be a writer.”
In 想当作家, the idea is “want to be an (professional) author/writer” as a career or identity, so 作家 is exactly the right word.
Yes, that’s correct and very natural.
- 有的同学以后想当老师，有的想当作家。
In the second half, 有的 clearly still refers to 有的同学, so 同学 can be omitted. This kind of omission (ellipsis) is common when the noun is obvious from context.
You cannot omit 有的, but you can omit 同学 in the second clause:
- ✔ 有的同学以后想当老师，有的想当作家。
- ✗ 有的同学以后想当老师，同学想当作家。 (wrong/unnatural)
The comma here just separates two related clauses:
- 有的同学以后想当老师，
- 有的同学想当作家。
Together they form a contrast: “some … (while) some …” But the comma itself doesn’t carry the meaning of “and” or “but”; that meaning comes from the repeated pattern 有的 … 有的 ….
You could translate the structure as:
- “Some students want to be teachers, while others want to be writers.”
In English we might add “while” or “and,” but in Chinese, the comma plus the 有的 … 有的 … pattern is enough to show the contrast.