Sentence explanations

[boz tilki]

你以后在中国的时候教英文吗?

1. did you teach english when you were previously in china?

2. were you previously in china when you were teaching english?

according to the answer (教, 我教英文。) i think the 1st one is correct, isn't it?

他们要同一支笔。

1. they both want a pen.

2. they want the same pen.

which one?

[skylee]

你以后在中国的时候教英文吗?

Is there a typo (as highlighted)? As both options are in past tense,but the highlighted part refers to the future.

教, 我教英文。

This sounds strange to me. Are you sure the highlighted word is not "對“?

他们要同一支笔。= They want the same pen.

[Manoz]

From what I understand (which is very limited )

以后 means 'after' or 'later', 以前 (yǐqián) means 'before' or 'previously'.

你 以前 在中国的时候教英文吗? Would mean something like 'When you were in China previously, did you teach English? This is because of the 的时候。

So if you use 以后，you're saying: 'Will you teach English when you're in China?'

With regards to the second, I wouldn't simply say: 他们都要一支笔。 都 dōu meaning 'both'.

[Meng Lelan]

did you teach english when you were previously in china?

Well the English itself is confusing. You don't even have to have the word "previously", you could say "Did you teach English when you were in China". So then you can say in Chinese 你在中国的时候教过英文吗？

[williams]

Hahaha

你以后在中国的时候教英文吗？

we should chanslate it like this:

From now on,Will you teach english in China?

here in this sentence.

we should notice these point:

1,the word:以后

this 以后 means from now on,

not after,not later.

2,This sentence is not a past question,It's a furture question.

3,skylee's:

This sounds strange to me. Are you sure the highlighted word is not "對“?

Here,we can use "对",and we can use "教"

they are all right

I think we should translate them like this:

对，我教英文

yeah,I'll teach English

教，我教英文

teach it,I'll teach English

In Chinese grammar,we pick a core verb to the front of a sentence in order to emphasis it.(do you know what i mean?)

so in this sentence:我教英文.

the core verb is :教

the answer want to emphasis the "教"，

so he answered:教，我教英文。

some examples:

你去上海吗？

will you go to Shanghai?

去，我去上海。

Yeah,I'll go

(the core verb is "go".the answer want to emphasis the "go")

你喜欢足球吗？~！

喜欢，我喜欢踢足球

I think you can translate them into english by yourself.

他们要同一支笔

it should be:they want the same pen.