jīnwǎn yīfu huì liànggān.

will

Breakdown of jīnwǎn yīfu huì liànggān.

• 衣服yīfu: clothes
• 晾干liànggān: to dry completely
• 今晚jīnwǎn: tonight

Questions & Answers about jīnwǎn yīfu huì liànggān.

Why is 今晚 placed at the beginning of the sentence?

In Mandarin, time expressions often come before the verb phrase, usually near the beginning of the sentence.

So:

• 今晚 = tonight
• 衣服 = clothes
• 会晾干 = will dry / will get dry

A very common word order is:

Time + subject/topic + verb phrase

So 今晚衣服会晾干 is completely natural.

You could think of it as:

• Tonight, the clothes will dry.

What does 会 mean here? Is it will, can, or know how to?

Here, 会 means will or is likely to.

Mandarin 会 has several uses:

• ability learned by study: 我会说中文 = I can speak Chinese
• future/prediction: 明天会下雨 = It will rain tomorrow
• probability: 他不会来了 = He probably won’t come

In 今晚衣服会晾干, it is the future/prediction use:

• The clothes will dry tonight
• or The clothes should be dry tonight

It does not mean someone knows how to dry clothes.

What exactly does mean? Is it one word?