Time adverbs and auxiliary verbs

[Antonio24]

Hi everyone

I’d like to understand the correct placement of time adverbs when they are used with auxiliary verbs.

I mean, is it possibile to put auxiliary verbs always before time adverbs or viceversa?

E.g. 我想下个月去中国 or is it supposed to be 我下个月想去中国？

Since I often see 打算 used this way, I’ve been wondering about this for a while.

any help would be very appreciated!

[Jim]

Both your examples are possible but change the emphasis a little, similar to how a change of word order would do that in English. To me, the first places the emphasis on your travel plans while the second gives how you intend to use your time greater prominence.  In context that change of emphasis might be more or less apparent, of course. But both placements are "correct".

[Antonio24]

Thank you for your quick reply!

May I ask if it is the same with placement adverbs?

I mean, according to your reply I can thus say both 我在中国能看到很多中国电影 and 我能在中国看到很多中国电影, can’t I?

[Jim]

Place is a bit stricter AFAIK: https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Indicating_location_with_"zai"_before_verbs. I could come up with a context where your second example would work but it does seem an unusual way to express oneself, perhaps an emphatic insistence that you can see Chinese films in China when someone has doubted that but even then a bit awkward and much more like the structure of a question.

[Antonio24]

Thank you Jim! 
so, you’re basically telling me to place auxiliary verbs after the 在+place construction as a general rule, aren’t you?

[Jim]

If I understand you right, yes that would be the general rule I'd say. There's often only very few hard and fast rules in Chinese grammar in my experience, in so far as whenever you perceive a general rule you can find examples of it being broken, but as a learner definitely best to work within such rules as we find until you're at a level where you can sense where perhaps bending or breaking might be useful or permissible.