忙完在去邮局

[metlx]

忙完在去邮局 - what does 在 indicate in this sentence?

It sounds to me as "After you’re done being busy, go to the post office."

 

But, wouldn’t 就 be used for that instead of 在?

 

[anonymoose]

You could use 就 although I guess it was meant to be 再.

[xiaoheiyang]

 

 

You could use 就 although I guess it was meant to be 再.

 

I think so. Should be 再 instead of 在.

 

And if you use 就，it's better to use " 一...就...". 我一忙完就去银行。 

[somethingfunny]

I find mixing up 在 and 再 to be one of the more common errors made by native speakers.

 

And using the "一 . . . 就 . . ." structure will change the meaning slightly from "When I have finished (being busy) I will go to the post office" to "As soon as I have finished (being busy) I will go to the post office."

[Guest123]

 

 

I find mixing up 在 and 再 to be one of the more common errors made by native speakers.

Isn't it because of computer? I mean when your input method is by pinyin, both are pronouced zai, and in the input system they come one afer another, so when people type quickly, it's auite possible to make this error. 

[somethingfunny]

Yeah, but you could make the same argument for anything.  People don't seem to type 时 instead of 是, or 每 instead of 没.  I've come across people who consistently make this mistake in every communication I have with them.

 

Also, I don't feel it's appropriate to give the benefit of the doubt here.  If I started typing out wrong characters, most Chinese people I know would sure as hell start bringing me up on it.

[lips]

That's interesting.  I always thought like Edita, that such mistakes were from picking the wrong adjacent characters on an IME.  Now that somethingfunny has mentioned it, I'll pay more attention in the future to see if such mistakes are made in handwritings by native speakers as well.

 

I guess it's no different from English, certain common mistakes made by natives speakers are not commonly made by non-native speakers, like lose/loose, could have/could of, its/it's, you're/your, ... 

[somethingfunny]

I've seen someone write 代 instead of 带 before.  And another good one is the word for ordering or reserving something, is it 订? or 顶? or 定?  Who really knows?

 

I alway equate these types of mistakes to things like your/you're or definately/definitely in English.  They're common mistakes, a lot of native speakers make them.

[Leighton]

“再” here means will do this next, and "一......就....."means two actions happened in succession.both indicate order but still have slightly different.