在。。。呢

在 (zai4) 。。。呢 (ne) is used in a sentence to indicate an action in progress. It can be used for any tenses (past, present, and future). This means, it does not matter if the progress was, is, or will be in progress.

Examples:

他在跑步呢。> He is walking. (or he was OR will be walking.)

同学们在上课。> The Classmates are in class.

弟弟游泳呢。> The younger brother is swimming

Attention!

If there is an object of locality, only one 在 is needed in total for the sentence to make sense. One keeps the structure Subject-在-place-verb-呢.

In order to make sense of when the action takes place, a indication of time can be added before the subject.

Examples:

现在我在超市买水果呢。> I am at the store to buy fruit.

明天上午十点我在上课。> Tomorrow at ten o’clock, I am at class.

Negative Form

The negative form is constructed using 没. In the negative, 呢 will be omitted as well, the 在 remains, though. As a short answer, 没有 can suffice as well.

The pronounciation of 啊

啊(a) is pronounced slightly differently depending on the syllable it follows.

1. a,o,e,i,ü + 啊 = ya

2. u,ao,ou + 啊 = wa

3. -n + 啊 = na

4. ng + 啊 = nga

5. zh,ch,sh,r,i,-r + 啊 = ra

6. z,c,s,i + 啊 = za