有時候…有時候…grammar point · tier 2 · alternation 有時候…有時候… (sometimes … other times …)
Splits one recurring situation into two cases that take turns: on some occasions it is the first, on others the second.
字源 FORM what the parts do
有 is a hand holding meat — there is some. 時候 is the watched stretch of time, 候 a man (亻) posted to wait. Said twice, 有時候 names one occasion and then another out of the same run of times, and the two things that fill them trade off.
故事 STORY a scene to remember it by
One bag of mixed beads. Reach in once, a red one comes up; reach in again, a blue one — never both at once, and which it is keeps changing.
字源自撰記憶法
框 · Frame
有時候 [case A], 有時候 [case B]
觸 · Trigger
One thing that behaves two different ways depending on the occasion, with no rule for which.
序 · The move
1Fix the one subject or situation that varies.Is it the same thing on both occasions, just behaving differently?
2Open 有時候 + the first case, then 有時候 + the second case.Do the two cases exclude each other on a given occasion?
3Leave which-when unstated.Would naming a fixed rule for the switch break it? If yes, the alternation is right.
例 · Examples
1百貨公司department store的活動promotion, event有時候sometimes; on some occasions是打折give a discount，有時候是送禮物give a gift。
The department store's promotions are sometimes a discount, other times a free gift.