# 又 / 再



## macrotis

Hi all,

What's the difference between the two words, please? For instance, are the interchangeable in the following sentences?

你的书在那里? 我又忘记了。
我得再洗一次餐具。


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## kenjoluma

又 and 再

又 is happened in the past. And it happens again.
再 happens now, and it will happen again in the future.

你又来了吗？You came _before_ and now you came again?
再见！I met you now and hope I can see you _later_.

他又成功了。He succeeded _before_ and now he did it again.
这个问题下次再讨论吧。About this issue, let's talk about it again _later_.


Maybe I overgeneralized too much. There could be something I missed. Please wait for other explanations just in case.


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## SuperXW

Although there are exceptions, I think kenjoluma's explanation is a good guiding rule, except that it's not necessary for "再 happens now". The matter for 再 can also happened in the past.

My explanation would be: *再 *is usually attached to future tense (*will*) / imperatives (*should*) / subjunctives (*would*). 

In macrotis's example, 我*得*再洗一次餐具, meaning "I have to (*should*) wash...again." So we usually use 再 here.

When you see modal verbs like 得/將/要/會/能/想/..., remember to use 再.


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## FRee^ARouND

And I think 再here is in a phrase 再一次, not just 再 itself. The only differences are that 再一次 is more literary while 又 is more colloquial and 再一次 have an imply meaning of futher but not necessarily to have.
But when 再 appears alone, it goes to what they already said.

When I've finished the post, I found a exactly way to tell 再,i.e. implies A relatively futher time scale.


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## SuperXW

FRee^ARouND said:


> And I think 再here is in a phrase 再一次, not just 再 itself. The only differences are that 再一次 is more literary while 又 is more colloquial and 再一次 have an imply meaning of futher but not necessarily to have.


I don't feel 再一次 is a phenomenal phrase in the original sentence, because they are not connected by themselves (with 洗 in between). You can definitely understand them character by character, which means "again one time". You can also separate or change them in various ways. e.g. 我得再洗餐具。/我得再洗几次餐具。/我得洗一次餐具。 All grammatical. In the contrary, if you change it into 我得*再一次*洗餐具。This would sound not so idiomatic.

Also I don't feel 又洗一次 is more colloquial than 再洗一次... I think 我得再洗一次餐具 fits any circumstance...

I insist my opinion that 再 is usually for future tense (*will*) / imperatives (*should*) / subjunctives (*would*). For imperatives and subjunctives, they are not necessarily happening in the future. They include the situations of "should/would have done".


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## FRee^ARouND

SuperXW said:


> I don't feel 再一次 is a phenomenal phrase in the original sentence, because they are not connected by themselves (with 洗 in between), and you can separate or change them in various ways. e.g. 我得再洗餐具。/我得再洗几次餐具。/我得洗一次餐具。 All grammatical. In the contrary, if you change it into 我得*再一次*洗餐具。This would sound not so idiomatic.
> 
> Also I don't feel 又洗一次 is more colloquial than 再洗一次... I think 我得再洗一次餐具 fits any circumstance...
> 
> I insist my opinion that 再 is usually for future tense (*will*) / imperatives (*should*) / subjunctives (*would*). For imperatives and subjunctives, they are not necessarily happening in the future. They include the situations of "should/would have done".



I can't argue with you in this case because I think 得 here also matters, which have an even stronger suggestion than 再 itself.

About which is more colloquial. Think about following comparison sentences:
我又悲剧了/我再一次悲剧了 
如果再见到她/如果又见到她

isn't that obvious?

About the 





> I insist my opinion that 再 is usually for future tense (*will*) / imperatives (*should*) / subjunctives (*would*). For imperatives and subjunctives, they are not necessarily happening in the future. They include the situations of "should/would have done".



I agree for I found there's nothing in your post contrary to my point"relatively further".


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## xiaolijie

FRee^ARouND said:


> About which is more colloquial. Think about following comparison sentences:
> 我又悲剧了/我再一次悲剧了
> 如果再见到她/如果又见到她
> 
> isn't that obvious?


Actually I'm not sure what you mean by this at all (Remember that your reply is supposed to help the learner ). Anyway, first tell us whether you mean the four sentences you cited are all possible and acceptable:
我又悲剧了/我再一次悲剧了 
如果再见到她/ 如果又见到她


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## SuperXW

Yeah, sometimes 又 and 再 are interchangable. Sometimes 又=再一次.
But it must be very careful when getting out of the general rules. Only some sayings are idiomatic, others are not.
For the original sentence:
我*得再*洗一次餐具。 
我得*再一次*洗餐具。 Strange. Too elegant.
我*得又*洗一次餐具。 If the "2nd-time washing" has already happened, then it's acceptable, but not good. If it hasn't happened yet, then 又 is wrong.
我*又得*洗一次餐具。 Colloquial.


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## macrotis

Invaluable. Thank you all.


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## xiaolijie

It's a shame that *FRee^ARouND* is not ARouND to reply to my question in post #7.

Anyway, I've got a different question and would like someone to tell me if this Chinese sentence is ok: 
我已经唱了，但是她来的时候我还要再唱了一遍.

Feel free to correct it if you need to. The sentence is about something I did yesterday. I just want to see if it's ok to use 再 when talking about the past events.


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## MèngDié

xiaolijie said:


> Anyway, I've got a different question and would like someone to tell me if this Chinese sentence is ok: 我已经唱了，但是她来的时候我还要再唱了一遍..


 Looks great. I would get rid of the "了" after the second "唱". So: 我已经唱了，但是她来的时候我还要再唱一遍. Means: I already sang, but when she comes I'll sing again. If you want to say instead: I had already sung, but when she came I sang again. I would use 又, 我已经唱了，但是她来的时候我又唱了一遍.


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## xiaolijie

Thank you MèngDié, what I wanted to say is indeed: _"__I had already sung, but when she came I had to sing again."_
I just tried to make a sentence with 再 about a past event, but it seems not possible (as you changed it into 又 ).

I already know that as a rule, we _use 又 for what has already happened and 再 for something that is or will be happening_, but this sounds to easy to be believable


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## SuperXW

xiaolijie said:


> I just tried to make a sentence with 再 about a past event, but it seems not possible (as you changed it into 又 ).
> 
> I already know that as a rule, we _use 又 for what has already happened and 再 for something that is or will be happening_, but this sounds to easy to be believable


Let me give you the examples of exceptions. 
等他回来我又要做一次。 -又 for a future tense.
我试了试，不行；再试，还是不行。 -再 for a past tense.


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## xiaolijie

SuperXW said:


> Let me give you the examples of exceptions.
> 等他回来我又要做一次。 -又 for a future tense.
> 我试了试，不行；再试，还是不行。 -再 for a past tense.


Thank you SuperXW! These examples are what I need, because I've never seen anything in Chinese that is straightforward, and I don't believe there is 



> 等他回来我又要做一次。 -又 for a future tense.


This example is very intereting! Please tell me weather my judgements are ok on the following variations:
等他回来我再要做一次。
等他回来我要再做一次。
等他回来我要又做一次。


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## YangMuye

等他回来我再要做一次。
等他回来我还要做一次。
等他回来我又要做一次。


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## xiaolijie

Thanks, YangMuye!

I think your 3rd and my 3rd sentence are not the same. 
(Your 3rd is in fact the same as SuperXW's original )


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## YangMuye

Yes. 又要, 又能, 又可以, 又会… are understandable. It seems that we can use 又 before a situation(stative?).

So how to describe a “situation”? I think you can add an “啊” or “哦” before the sentence when you find yourself in such a situation.
Normal: 啊，他来了。
又version：他又来了。

Normal: 啊，你要出去？
又version：你又要出去？

Normal: 哦。我 要/得 做一次。
又version：我又 要/得 做一次？

又 has nothing to do with tense. It just means you have already experienced the same situation before.



如果我再见到她
如果我又见到她 
Both are grammatical. I don't know how to explain the subtle difference.


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## fitter.happier

我还是坐地铁回去吧，不用换车。不然我又迷路了。

Can 又 be replaced by 再 in this sentence?


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## FRee^ARouND

fitter.happier said:


> 我还是坐地铁回去吧，不用换车。不然我又迷路了。
> 
> Can 又 be replaced by 再 in this sentence?



No. Here's the differences. First of all it is a colloquial sentence. As I already stated before, 又 is much more collquial than 再一次. Second, if you want to use 再一次 here, you should add 会. Acctually it is the same if you use 又. But since 又 is a colloquail word, it is ok without 会. But 再一次 is a very formal phrase, it seems pretty strange if you don't add 会.


xiaolijie said:


> It's a shame that *FRee^ARouND* is not ARouND to reply to my question in post #7.
> 
> Anyway, I've got a different question and would like someone to tell me if this Chinese sentence is ok:
> 我已经唱了，但是她来的时候我还要再唱了一遍.
> 
> Feel free to correct it if you need to. The sentence is about something I did yesterday. I just want to see if it's ok to use 再 when talking about the past events.



Sorry for I didn't notice the reminding e-mail. All the sentences were trying to show you 再一次 is formal while 又 is colloquial.(But I think I mentioned it right?)

As I wrote in post #6:


> About which is more colloquial. Think about following comparison sentences



Maybe there sentences are kind of difficult to understand the differences for a non-native...Because I think SuperXW got it while you were confused


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