Hello,
What's the difference between zhengzai and zai?
:)
they have the same meaning when referring to :be doing :wo zheng zai /zai xie zuo ye . i am doing my homework.
but when referring to prep ,you can only use zai :ni zai na li?where are you ?
do they make sense ?
Furthermore，在can also refers to in or at
for instance，小明在家么? 他在。
There are almost no difference.
But you can also distinguish it.
Image this, you're on the phone with your boyfriends.
And he asked you, what are you doing?
You can say I "zai" write a comment.
And he might say,
No, you "zhengzai" on the phone with me.
Usually we use "zai", except that we want to emphasize that "I'm doing that something!!"
the both plus verb means: are doing something...now
but 正在(zhengzai)emphasize the word 正 : just right now
在(zai) just describe the status: now.
so basically if you see the one character and two characters have similar meaning, in this case, the one from two characters emphasize and make the meaning more clear.
A: can you help me to fix the TV? (Ni neng bang wo xiu yi xia dianshi ma?)
B: i'm doing my homework. (Wo zhengzai zuo zuoye.)
Implying that you cannot help right now.
Hope this clarifies.
