Breakdown of měinián Chūnjié wǒ dōu huí lǎojiā kànkan yéye nǎinai.
Questions & Answers about měinián Chūnjié wǒ dōu huí lǎojiā kànkan yéye nǎinai.
In this sentence, 都 does not mean “all people”; it means “every time / without exception”.
- 每年春节我都回老家……
= Every Spring Festival, I (without exception) go back to my hometown…
So 都 is distributing over the occasions (every year), not over multiple people.
You can think of it as: “On every such occasion, I do this.”
Yes, you can say:
- 每年春节我回老家看看爷爷奶奶。
The basic meaning (“Every Spring Festival I go back…”) is still clear.
Nuance:
- With 都: sounds slightly more emphatic — every year, without exception.
- Without 都: a neutral statement of a regular habit, less emphasis on “without exception”.
Both word orders are natural:
- 每年春节我都回老家看看爷爷奶奶。
- 我每年春节都回老家看看爷爷奶奶。
Differences are minor:
- Chinese often puts broader time expressions (like 每年, 春节) at the beginning of the sentence for context.
- Putting 我 first (version 2) is also common and perfectly correct.
What you generally don’t say is something odd like 春节每年我都…; 每年春节 acts as one combined time phrase (“every Spring Festival”).
回 means “to return (to a place you came from / consider home)”.
去 just means “to go (to some place)”.
- 回老家: go back to your hometown / family home; there’s a sense of returning.
- 去老家: go to your hometown; grammatically OK, but it doesn’t highlight the “returning home” feeling.
Because you usually think of your 老家 as a place you “go back to”, 回老家 is the natural choice here.
老家 usually means:
- your hometown or family’s original home, often where your parents or ancestors are from;
- it can also mean the place where your parents currently live, especially if you grew up there.
It is not always strictly “parents’ house” in the physical sense; it’s more about your origin / family roots than just “the place my parents happen to live right now”.
Reduplication of verbs (like 看看) often softens the tone or suggests a short, casual action.
- 看爷爷奶奶: “see/visit my grandparents” — neutral.
- 看看爷爷奶奶: “go and see my grandparents for a bit / pay them a visit” — sounds warmer, more casual, less heavy.
In this context, 看看 is very natural and friendly: it suggests dropping by to visit, not some formal or serious “inspection”.
Chinese doesn’t mark tense the way English does. Here, 每年 (every year) indicates a habitual action, so no 了 is needed.
- 每年春节我都回老家看看爷爷奶奶。
→ Describes a regular pattern: “I do this every year.”
If you wanted to talk about one specific year in the past, you might use 了:
- 去年春节我回老家看了爷爷奶奶。
→ “Last Spring Festival I went back to my hometown and visited my grandparents.”
You can say 每年在春节, but it’s less common and can sound a bit heavier or more formal.
Natural options:
- 每年春节我都回老家…… (most common, smooth)
- 我每年春节都回老家……
Using 在 often feels more like “at the time of / during”, and is more typical with some other kinds of time expressions, e.g.:
- 在周末 / 在假期 — “on weekends / during holidays”.
With 春节, native speakers very often just say 春节 or 每年春节 without 在.
In this context, 爷爷奶奶 already implies “my grandfather and grandmother” and is totally natural.
- 看看爷爷奶奶 ≈ “go visit my grandparents.”
You would only add 我的 for clarity or emphasis, for example if the context might be ambiguous, or if you’re comparing:
- 去看看我的爷爷奶奶，不是你家的。
→ “Go visit my grandparents, not yours.”
Yes, 见见爷爷奶奶 is grammatically fine and also natural.
- 看(看)爷爷奶奶 focuses slightly more on “visit / see (spend time with)”.
- 见(见)爷爷奶奶 focuses slightly more on the act of meeting/seeing them.
In many everyday contexts, 看(看) and 见(见) with people overlap a lot. For family visits like this, 看(看) is very common and sounds warm and homely.
All of these are natural and mean essentially the same thing:
- 每年春节我都回老家看看爷爷奶奶。
- 我每年春节都回老家看看爷爷奶奶。
- 春节的时候，我每年都回老家看看爷爷奶奶。
- 我每年春节都会回老家看看爷爷奶奶。 (adds 会 = “will”, slightly more forward-looking / habitual)
Key patterns:
- Time expressions usually come before the verb phrase.
- 都 typically comes after the subject and before the main verb (回).
- Extra elements (like 的时候) can be added for style but aren’t required.