我正在吃晚饭 vs 我在吃晚饭。

[Christa]

我正在吃晚饭 vs 我在吃晚饭 - I'm eating dinner. Is there any difference in the meaning or usage of these two different ways of saying "I'm eating dinner" or are they identical in meaning and usage?

[somethingfunny]

I'll go for option number 3: 我在吃饭呢！

[Christa]

4 hours ago, somethingfunny said:

I'll go for option number 3: 我在吃饭呢！

 

There's always one, isn't there?!

 

But seriously, would you say there's any difference in the meaning or usage between 我正在吃晚饭, 我在吃晚饭 and (adding yours) 我在吃晚饭呢?

 

 

[imron]

Yes there is a difference.  正在 emphasizes right now at this exact moment. 

 

Also you can you use the plain 在 version to describe events that were occurring in the past, but you can't do that with 正在.  (this appears to be wrong).

[anonymoose]

2 hours ago, imron said:

Also you can you use the plain 在 version to describe events that were occurring in the past, but you can't do that with 正在. 

 

Not sure where you get that from. Here's an example sentence from a BLCU publication: 昨天我去他家的时候，他正在看书呢。

 

正在, as opposed to 在, just emphasis exactly at that particular moment.

[imron]

Interesting. That was drummed in to me by a teacher at some point, I still have the notes from that class (which had a lesson devoted to the differences between these two words) but the notes are in storage at the moment so can't look them up, but I'll have to look in to why I thought that - perhaps I've confused some other point. 

[imron]

Ok, I had it confused when using it with things that had already happened:

 

“在”可以与表示已然意义的时间副词“已经、早已、早就”等共现， 如“已经在做了/早就在宣传了”而“ 正、正在”不能。如：他们已经在调查了。不能说：*他们已经正调查了，*他们已经正在调查了。

 

More on the differences between these words can be found here.

[DavyJonesLocker]

On Christa`s question though. I'd expect 在 to be used much more in a general context when speaking, if referring to "doing something now"

So 你在干什么 呢？ Could be just a general ”whatcha doing" but 你现在干什么？Might be have the added "are you busy doing something right now as I'm about to ask you to do something" tone to it.

 

As a general rule Chinese use as few words as necessary. 

 

 

[Christa]

9 hours ago, imron said:

Yes there is a difference.  正在 emphasizes right now at this exact moment. 

 

7 hours ago, anonymoose said:

正在, as opposed to 在, just emphasis exactly at that particular moment.

 

28 minutes ago, DavyJonesLocker said:

On Christa`s question though. I'd expect 在 to be used much more in a general context when speaking, if referring to "doing something now"

So 你在干什么 呢？ Could be just a general ”whatcha doing" but 你现在干什么？Might be have the added "are you busy doing something right now as I'm about to ask you to do something" tone to it.

 

So would this give the correct meaning:

 

我正在吃晚饭 = I'm right in the middle of eating dinner. (Very strong emphasis that I'm doing this right now).

 

我在吃晚饭 = I'm eating dinner. (I'm doing this right now but not making a big deal about it).

 

Does that sound about right?

[DavyJonesLocker]

I wouldn't necessarily say "strong emphasis", just more use 现在 if you want to emphasis the moment a little or is necessary. In English I see it as 

 

What are you doing? (General query)

I'm eating dinner

 

(On the phone)

Busy?

I'm in the middle of eating dinner, I'll call you back

 

To be honest in the 2nd case a lot would probably still use 在 for sake of efficiency. (Including me)

 

 

[Christa]

12 minutes ago, DavyJonesLocker said:

What are you doing? (General query)

I'm eating dinner

 

(On the phone)

Busy?

I'm in the middle of eating dinner, I'll call you back

 

So, like this: 

 

What are you doing? (General query)

I'm eating dinner = 我在吃晚饭

 

(On the phone)

Busy?

I'm in the middle of eating dinner = 我正在吃晚饭, I'll call you back.

 

(But also, for efficiency, this second one could also end up as just 我在吃晚饭).

 

Does that sum it up correctly?

[DavyJonesLocker]

Its way I'd see it . We can see what others think. 

When I started leaning Chinese I almost always used 现在, now I rarely use it, not as an intentional change in speaking but rather for the simple reason being that  I didn't hear others using it. ;)

 

I find with these type of differences one just absorbs them by osmosis rather than intentional  study. However its naturally harder if you don't live in China. 

 

[Christa]

Thanks, DJL!