Learn Hardcore Chinese: wǒmen yīnggāi ànshí huídào sùshè.

要: stronger, often “must” or “going to”
- 我们要按时回到宿舍。
  → We must / have to go back to the dorm on time. (Sounds more like a rule or fixed plan.)
得: also “have to / must”, often used in speech for necessity
- 我们得按时回到宿舍。
  → We have to go back to the dorm on time. (Necessity, maybe because of rules.)

So:

应该 = should / ought to (softer)
要 / 得 = have to / must (stronger obligation)
All three are grammatically possible; which you choose depends on how strong you want the obligation to sound.

Why do we say 回到宿舍 instead of just 回宿舍? Is there a difference?

Both 回到宿舍 and 回宿舍 are possible. The meanings are close, but there is a nuance:

回宿舍
- Shorter, very common in spoken Chinese.
- Focus on the action of “going back to the dorm”.
回到宿舍
- 到 is a result complement meaning “arrive at / reach”.
- Emphasizes reaching the destination: “go back and arrive at the dorm”.

In everyday conversation, people often say:

我们应该回宿舍了。
快回宿舍！

But 回到宿舍 is also natural, and slightly more explicit about “ending up at that place”. In this sentence, either works.

What is the difference between 回到, 回来, and 回去?

All three involve the idea “to return / go back”, but they encode direction differently.

回到 + place
- Neutral about “towards me” or “away from me”.
- Emphasizes arriving at that place.
- Example: 我们应该按时回到宿舍。
  → We should go back to (and arrive at) the dorm on time.
回来
- Return here / come back (towards the speaker’s location or base).
- Example (you are already at the dorm, talking to someone):
  你太晚了，下次要按时回来。
  → You’re too late. Next time you should come back on time.
回去
- Go back (away from the speaker’s current location).
- Example (you are at the office, talking to a student who lives in the dorm):
  太晚了，你快回去吧。
  → It’s too late, you should go back (to the dorm).

In 我们应该按时回到宿舍, using 回到 avoids having to think about “towards me” (来) vs “away from me” (去) and just states “return and arrive at the dorm”.

Is 按时 a verb or an adverb here? What exactly does it mean, and how is it different from 准时?

In this sentence, 按时 functions as an adverb modifying the verb phrase 回到宿舍.

按时 literally: “according to the time (set)”
- Meaning: on time; by the required/scheduled time
- Often used where there is a rule, requirement, or plan.
- Examples:
  - 按时吃药 – take medicine on time, as prescribed
  - 按时完成作业 – finish homework on schedule
准时 literally: “accurate time”
- Meaning: punctual; exactly on time
- Emphasizes precision, not necessarily a rule.
- Examples:
  - 他很准时。 – He is very punctual.
  - 火车准时到达。 – The train arrives on time (exactly).

In this sentence, both are possible:

我们应该按时回到宿舍。 – We should go back on time (as the rules/plan require).
我们应该准时回到宿舍。 – We should be punctual in going back (emphasis on not being late, exactly on time).

Because dorms usually have a curfew or rule, 按时 feels very natural here.

Why is 按时 placed before 回到宿舍? Could we move it somewhere else in the sentence?

The typical Chinese word order for this kind of sentence is:

Subject + (Time) + Modal verb + (Adverb) + Verb (+ Object)

So:

我们 (subject)
应该 (modal: should)
按时 (adverb: on time)
回到宿舍 (verb phrase: go back to the dorm)

我们应该按时回到宿舍。 is the most natural order.

Can we move 按时?

我们按时应该回到宿舍。
- Grammatically possible but sounds awkward and unnatural.
- Modals like 应该 very rarely get split this way.
按时我们应该回到宿舍。
- Also unnatural; feels like topicalizing “on time” in a way Chinese wouldn’t normally do.

So: keep 按时 right before the main verb phrase (回到宿舍) after the modal 应该.

Could we omit 我们 and just say 应该按时回到宿舍?

Yes, you can omit 我们 if the subject is clear from context. Chinese often drops the subject when it’s understood.

(我们) 应该按时回到宿舍。
→ If you’re clearly talking about “us/we”, then leaving out 我们 is fine.

When would you definitely keep 我们?

When the subject might be ambiguous:
- 他们应该按时回到宿舍。 – They should go back on time.
- 我们应该按时回到宿舍。 – We should go back on time.

In conversation among classmates, if it’s obvious “we” are the topic, people easily say:

应该按时回到宿舍。
得按时回到宿舍。

and 我们 is understood.

Why do we use 宿舍 instead of 家 if it means “go back home”?

宿舍 and 家 are different:

宿舍 (sùshè)
- Means dormitory / dorm room / student residence.
- Used for school dorms, sometimes company dorms.
- Example: 大学宿舍, 员工宿舍.
家 (jiā)
- Means home or family (depending on context).
- Example: 回家 – go home; 我家 – my home / my family.

So:

回到宿舍 – go back to the dorm.
回家 – go back home.

If you live in a school dorm, in English you might casually say “go back home”, but in Chinese, if you mean the dormitory, 宿舍 is more precise.

Do we need a measure word before 宿舍, like 一个宿舍?

In this sentence, no measure word is needed because 宿舍 is being used as a place in general, not as “one dorm room” among many.

回到宿舍 – go back to the dorm (as “the place where we live”).
This is like saying “go back to school / work / home” in English.

You would use a measure word when you’re counting or specifying which dorm:

一个宿舍 – one dorm (room)
这间宿舍 – this dorm room
他们住在同一个宿舍。 – They live in the same dorm.

But when it’s just “go back to the dorm” as your usual residence, 宿舍 without a measure word is natural.

Is 我们应该按时回到宿舍 polite, or does it sound too direct / bossy?

应该 is relatively soft and often used to give advice, express shared responsibility, or refer to rules. Tone depends partly on how it’s said:

As a shared obligation (including the speaker):
我们应该按时回到宿舍。
– We should go back on time.
This sounds like a reminder or a suggestion, not very bossy.
As an instruction from a teacher/RA to students:
It can sound like stating a rule, but still not very harsh.

To be even softer/more polite, you might say:

我们最好按时回到宿舍。
→ It would be best if we go back to the dorm on time.
我们还是按时回到宿舍吧。
→ Let’s just go back to the dorm on time. (soft, suggesting a course of action)

So the original sentence is appropriately neutral and not rude.

Are there any tricky pronunciation or tone issues in this sentence?

The pinyin with tones is:

我们 – wǒmen (3rd + neutral)
应该 – yīnggāi (1st + 1st)
按时 – ànshí (4th + 2nd)
回到 – huídào (2nd + 4th)
宿舍 – sùshè (4th + 4th)

Notes:

我们 (wǒmen)
- 我 is third tone, but like most 3rd tones in speech, it’s often pronounced as a half-low tone (not fully dipping).
按 (àn)
- Make sure it’s 4th tone: falling, not “ān”.
- 按时 is ànshí, not ānshí.
宿舍 (sùshè)
- Both are 4th tone.
- Final -è in 舍: retroflex “sh” + “e”, like “shuh” with the tongue curled back.

There is no special 3rd-tone sandhi to worry about here, because no two full 3rd tones are adjacent.

How would we say “We shouldn’t go back to the dorm on time” or “We shouldn’t go back to the dorm”?

To negate 应该, we place 不 before it:

我们不应该按时回到宿舍。
– We shouldn’t go back to the dorm on time.

This is grammatically fine, but semantically a bit strange (why would you not be on time?). More natural negatives are:

“We don’t have to go back to the dorm on time.”
- 我们不用按时回到宿舍。
  Here 不用 = “don’t need to”, which is often more natural than “shouldn’t”.
“We shouldn’t go back to the dorm.” (no mention of time)
- 我们不应该回到宿舍。
  – We shouldn’t go back to the dorm. (for some reason it’s a bad idea)

For imperative “Don’t go back to the dorm”, you’d use 别:

别回到宿舍。 – Don’t go back to the dorm.

How do we turn this sentence into a question like “Should we go back to the dorm on time?”

Two common ways:

Add 吗 at the end:
- 我们应该按时回到宿舍吗？
  – Should we go back to the dorm on time?
Use a “verb-not-verb” / “A-not-A” question pattern, often with 要不要:
- 我们要不要按时回到宿舍？
  – Should we (or not) go back to the dorm on time?

Both are natural.

应该…吗？ sounds a bit more like you’re asking about what is right / appropriate.
要不要…？ sounds a bit more colloquial and neutral (“do we need to / are we going to or not?”).

Where would we put a specific time, like “every night at ten o’clock we should go back to the dorm on time”?

General rule: time expressions usually go after the subject and before the verb / modal.

You can say:

我们每天晚上十点应该按时回到宿舍。
– Every night at ten o’clock we should go back to the dorm on time.

Breakdown:

我们 – we
每天晚上十点 – every night at ten
应该 – should
按时回到宿舍 – go back to the dorm on time

You usually do not say:

✗ 我们应该十点按时回到宿舍。 – possible but clunky.
✗ 我们应该按时十点回到宿舍。 – unnatural order.

Also, if you already say 十点, 按时 can be redundant; often one is enough:

我们每天晚上十点回到宿舍。 – We go back to the dorm at ten every night.
我们每天晚上应该按时回到宿舍。 – We should go back to the dorm on time every night.