How To Use: 在 vs. 再 In Chinese

WHAT’S A HOMOPHONE?

A homophone is a word that sounds exactly like another, except it’s spelled differently. English has some of those: “To,” “too,” and “two.” “Your” and “you’re.” The notorious “their,” “there,” and “they’re” trio. Incorrect usage of homophones happens all the time, resulting in headache-inducing typos like, “your always like that” or “their finally here.” (There are also some English words that sound exactly the same in Chinese. Check out our post here.) Like English, Chinese has many homophones of its own—many, many more than English, in fact. Compared to writing Chinese, speaking Chinese is a walk in the park. Open up a Chinese dictionary, and you’ll see that multiple different characters share the same pronunciation. It’s seldom to see a character have a unique pronunciation all to themselves.

Some of the commonly used Chinese homophones are 的, 地 and 得 (de); 她, 他, 牠, and它 (ta); and再 (zài), 在 (zài). 再 (zài) and 在(zài) are some of the most frequently seen homophones, and likewise most frequently misused. Just like mixing up“their, there,” or “they’re” is frowned upon, using the wrong “zài” is an indicator that one’s rudimentary Chinese skills are shaky.

How can you know when to use which “zài?” Worry no more. Here are some pointers on what each character means and when to use them!

在 (ZÀI ) CAN BE USED TO INDICATE 1. AN ACTION IN PROGRESS, OR 2. LOCATION

1. ACTION IN PROGRESS (-ING)

她在说话 (tā zài shuō huà)
She is speaking.
在modifies 说话, so "speak" becomes "speaking." The same applies to other verbs; 在 implies the verb is in a present tense.

2. LOCATION (IN, AT, IS)

在那里 (zài nà lǐ)
It is over there.
To identify what subject the phrase is referring to, place the noun before it. For instance, “The school is over there.” is written as “学校在那里 (xué xiào zài nà lǐ.)” To indicate what the subject is doing at said location, just place the verb after the phrase. “She is playing basketball over there.” Is written as “她在那里打篮球 (tā zài nà lǐ dǎ lán qiú).”

在哪里? (zài nǎ lǐ)
Where is it?
Likewise to the previous example, to identify what subject the phrase is referring to just place the noun before it and to show what action is performed just add the verb after it. “Where is he performing” is written as “他在哪里表演? (tā zài nǎ lǐ biǎo yǎn?)”