Learn Hardcore Chinese: zài kèshàng, lǎoshī chángcháng ràng wǒmen yòng zhōngwén wèn wèntí. - In class, the teacher often has us ask questions in Chinese.

在课上 literally = “during class / in class (time & place)”.
Starting a sentence with 在 + place/time is a very common Chinese pattern:
- 在家，我不说中文。 – At home, I don’t speak Chinese.
- 在中国，他学了两年汉语。 – In China, he studied Chinese for two years.

You can drop 在 in very casual speech and just say 课上老师常常…, but:

在课上 sounds more standard and clear as a full locative phrase.
For learners, using 在 is safer and more natural.

What exactly does 课上 mean? How is it different from 上课的时候 or 在课堂上?

All three are similar but have slightly different flavors:

课上
- Literally “on/within the class (session)”.
- Very common in everyday speech.
- Focuses on the period while a particular class is going on.
上课的时候
- Literally “when (we are) having class”.
- A bit more explicit about the time aspect (的时候 = when).
- Feels slightly longer and more “sentence-like”, but very natural:
  - 上课的时候，老师常常让我们用中文问问题。
在课堂上
- Literally “in the classroom context / in class (as a learning setting)”.
- Sounds a bit more formal or written than 在课上.

In practice, for this sentence, all of these are acceptable:

在课上，老师常常让我们用中文问问题。
上课的时候，老师常常让我们用中文问问题。
在课堂上，老师常常让我们用中文问问题。

The meaning is almost the same: “During class, the teacher often has us ask questions in Chinese.”

Why is the time/place phrase 在课上 at the very beginning? Could I put it later, like 老师在课上常常让我们…?

Chinese often puts time and place information near the start of the sentence, before the subject or right after it. All of these are grammatical:

在课上，老师常常让我们用中文问问题。
老师在课上常常让我们用中文问问题。

Nuances:

Sentence‑initial 在课上 (version 1) slightly emphasizes the setting:
- As for what happens during class… the teacher often has us…
老师在课上… (version 2) slightly emphasizes the teacher first, then when/where he/she does this.

Both are natural. Putting 在课上 at the very end, though, would sound odd:

✗ 老师常常让我们用中文问问题在课上。 (wrong)

Location/time phrases generally do not go at the very end after the object in Chinese.

What does 让 mean here? Is the teacher “letting” us, “asking” us, or “making” us do it?

让 is a causative verb. It means “to have someone do something / to make someone do something / to let someone do something” depending on context and tone.

Structure:

让 + person + verb phrase
老师让我们用中文问问题。
- Literally: “The teacher lets/has us use Chinese to ask questions.”

In a classroom context, 让 usually implies:

The teacher requires or asks students to do it as a rule or expectation.
It’s not just “allowing”; it’s more like:
- “The teacher has us…”
- “The teacher asks us to…”

So functionally, you can understand it as “The teacher has us ask questions in Chinese (rather than another language).”

Could I use 要 or 叫 instead of 让? What’s the difference between 老师要我们…, 老师叫我们…, and 老师让我们…?

All three can appear in 老师 + (verb) + 我们 + do something, but they differ in tone and common usage:

让
- Neutral and very common.
- Means “have / tell / require” someone to do something.
- 老师常常让我们用中文问问题。
  - Very natural, standard classroom language.
要
- Stronger sense of “require / demand / need to”.
- 老师要我们用中文问问题。
  - Feels more like a rule or requirement: “The teacher expects/insists that we ask questions in Chinese.”
叫
- In this pattern, often more colloquial.
- Depending on region, can sound a bit more casual or spoken:
  - 老师叫我们用中文问问题。
- Perfectly understandable, but 让 is safer and more standard in learner contexts.

For your sentence, 让 is the most natural choice.

Why do we need 用 before 中文? Why not just 老师让我们中文问问题?

用 means “to use (a tool/method/language)”.

In Chinese, when you talk about doing something in a certain language, you normally use 用 + language:

用中文说。 – Say it in Chinese.
用英文写。 – Write it in English.
用手机看新闻。 – Read the news with a phone.

So the pattern is:

用 + language + verb
用中文问问题。 – Ask questions in Chinese.

老师让我们中文问问题 is ungrammatical because 中文 wouldn’t have the needed verb 用 to connect it as a tool/method to 问. You need 用 to show that Chinese is the medium used for asking.

Is 问问题 redundant? It literally looks like “ask questions.” Could we just say 问?

In Chinese, 问问题 is a very natural collocation and not considered awkwardly redundant.

问 by itself means “to ask”, but doesn’t specify what.
问题 means “question(s), problem(s)”.

You have options:

问问题 – to ask questions (general)
- 老师让我们用中文问问题。
问一个问题 – to ask a question (one)
- 老师让我们用中文问一个问题。
问他 – to ask him (no explicit “question” word)
- 你有不懂的地方，可以问他。

In English, “ask a question” also sounds a bit redundant if you think about it literally, but it’s completely normal. 问问题 works the same way in Chinese.

Just saying 老师让我们用中文问 feels incomplete; native speakers expect an object like 问题 or a person (他/老师).

When should I use 中文, 汉语, or 普通话? They all seem to mean “Chinese.”

They overlap but aren’t identical:

中文 (zhōngwén)
- Literally: “Chinese (written) language”.
- In modern usage: the Chinese language in general, spoken or written.
- Very common in everyday speech, especially from learners or in international contexts.
- Your sentence with 用中文问问题 is perfectly natural.
汉语 (hànyǔ)
- Literally: “the language of the Han people”.
- Often used in linguistics, education, and more formal descriptions.
- Textbook titles: 汉语课本, 汉语水平考试 (HSK).
- You could also say:
  - 老师常常让我们用汉语问问题。 (fine, a little more “textbook-ish”)
普通话 (pǔtōnghuà)
- Literally: “common speech”, i.e. Standard Mandarin as defined by the PRC.
- Refers specifically to the standard spoken variety, not Chinese in general.
- You’d use it when contrasting with dialects:
  - 在上海，我们上课只说普通话，不说上海话。

For your sentence, 中文 is the most neutral, most commonly used choice.

Why is there no measure word before 问题? When do I say 一个问题 or 几个问题 instead?

Whether you need a measure word depends on how specific you are being:

General / unspecific “questions” → no measure word
- 问问题 – ask questions (in general)
- 有问题吗？ – Are there (any) questions?
Specific number or amount → need a measure word
- 问一个问题 – ask one question
- 问几个问题 – ask a few questions
- 有三个问题要问老师。 – have three questions to ask the teacher

In your sentence:

让我们用中文问问题 = “have us ask questions in Chinese” (no particular number).
If the teacher said “Each of you must ask one question in Chinese,” you’d say:
- 老师让我们每个人用中文问一个问题。

Why doesn’t 老师 have 们? How do I know when to use 们 for plurals like “teachers” or “we”?

In Chinese:

Nouns usually do not change form for singular vs. plural.
们 is only used in a limited way:
1. After personal pronouns:
  - 我 → 我们
  - 你 → 你们
  - 他 → 他们
2. After some human nouns to explicitly indicate a group (but not always necessary):
  - 老师们, 同学们, 孩子们, etc.

For 老师 here:

老师常常让我们… can mean “the teacher” (one) or “teachers (in general)”, depending on context.
Chinese often leaves number implicit if it isn’t important.

If you really want to emphasize multiple teachers as a group, you can say:

老师们常常让我们用中文问问题。

But in a typical sentence like this, 老师 without 们 is completely normal and doesn’t sound singularly restrictive the way English “teacher” does.

Where can I put 常常 in the sentence? Is 老师常常让我们… the only correct place?

常常 (often) is an adverb of frequency. In Chinese, adverbs like this usually go:

before the main verb they modify.

Common placements in your sentence:

老师常常让我们用中文问问题。
- Most natural. “The teacher often has us ask questions in Chinese.”
老师让我们常常用中文问问题。
- Now 常常 modifies 用, suggesting “The teacher has us frequently use Chinese to ask questions.”
- Grammatically OK, but slightly different emphasis (frequency of using Chinese itself).
在课上，老师常常让我们用中文问问题。
- Same logic, with 常常 before 让.

You normally would not say:

✗ 常常老师让我们用中文问问题。 (sounds wrong – adverb before subject)

So best patterns are:

在课上，老师常常让我们…
老师在课上常常让我们…

Could I drop 我们 and just say 老师常常让用中文问问题?

No. In this sentence, 我们 is required because 让 needs an explicit person who is being made/asked/allowed to do something.

Structure:

让 + [who] + [do what]
老师让我们用中文问问题。
- “The teacher has us use Chinese to ask questions.”

If you remove 我们, you get:

✗ 老师常常让用中文问问题。

This is ungrammatical because:

让 is left without a person as its object.
Native speakers will feel something is missing.

You can omit 我们 if it’s understood from context and you change the structure, e.g.:

A: 你们在课上说什么语言？
B: 老师常常让（我们）用中文。

Here, you might drop 我们 in casual speech because it’s obvious who is being talked about. But in a full standalone sentence like yours, keep 我们.

Is 在课上，老师常常让我们用中文问问题。 a complete, natural sentence for native speakers, or does it sound like a “textbook sentence”?

It is both natural and very typical textbook‑style — which is a good thing.

Grammar: Completely correct.
Word choice: Very standard, no weirdness.
Register: Neutral; appropriate for spoken and written usage.

A native speaker could easily say this in real life in many contexts, for example:

Describing a class to a friend:
- 在课上，老师常常让我们用中文问问题，还让我们分组讨论。

So it’s not “unnatural” at all; it just happens to be the kind of sentence that also works well in a beginner/intermediate textbook because the structure is clear and representative of real usage.