Level 4 · Lesson 8

门开着
The door is open

门开着，窗户关着。他站着说话，我躺着看书。

着 says a state is still there — and a first verb with 着 tells you how the second one is done.

听 · Listen

对话
 安娜 —  李明，教室的门开着吗？ 
Li Ming, is the classroom door open?  
 李明 —  门开着，窗户关着。 
The door is open and the window is shut.  
 安娜 —  老师在教室里吗？ 
Is the teacher in the classroom?  
 李明 —  在。他没坐着，他站着说话呢。 
He is. He isn't sitting down, he's talking standing up.  
 安娜 —  黑板上写着什么？ 
What's written on the board?  
 李明 —  写着我们的名字。 
Our names are up there.  
 安娜 —  你弟弟呢？他也来吗？ 
And your younger brother? Is he coming too?  
 李明 —  他没来，他在家躺着看书呢。 
He didn't come — he's at home reading, lying down.  

讲解 · Explanation

我开门。门开着。

着 after a verb says that the state the verb produced is still there. 我开门 is an event: I open the door. 门开着 is a picture: the door stands open, and it has been standing open for a while. Nothing happens in 门开着 — something simply is. Read the particle toneless, zhe. The same character is read zháo and zhuó in other words, so let its job decide: as a marker sitting on a verb it is always zhe.

他没坐着。黑板上写着我们的名字。

Negate a state with 没, and the 着 stays put: 没坐着 'is not sitting', 门没开着 'the door is not open'. 着 is also how Chinese paints a scene. Start with a place word, add a verb with 着, and finish with the thing that is there: 黑板上写着我们的名字, 教室里坐着很多学生. English would say 'there is'; Chinese says where first, then how the thing sits there.

他站着说话，我躺着看书。

Put two verbs in a row and mark the first one with 着, and the first stops being an event: it becomes the posture, the manner, the way the second one is done. 站着说话 is 'talk standing up', 躺着看书 is 'read lying down', 坐着吃饭 is 'eat sitting down'. The order never changes — the 着-verb is the background, the bare verb is the main thing, and no word comes between them.

生词 · Vocabulary

词	Meaning	注 · Note
着	-zhe: the state is still going on	动词 + 着, toneless
开	to open; to turn on	开门, 开电视
关	to close; to turn off	关门, 关电视
站	to stand	站着说话
躺	to lie down	在床上躺着

练习 · Practice

他______说话。 He talks standing up.

他没______，他站着。 He isn't sitting, he's standing.

窗户关______。 The window is shut.

排一排。 Arrange the words: 'There are a lot of students sitting in the classroom.'

着、开、关、站、躺 Match each word to its meaning.

用一用 · Use it

门开着，窗户关着。他站着说话，我躺着看书。

Look up from this page and describe the room with three 着 sentences: which door or window is 开着, which is 关着, and who is 坐着 or 站着. Then say two things about yourself using two verbs in a row — 我坐着看书, 我站着说话 — and hear how the 着-verb always goes first, quietly holding the scene while the second verb does the work.