You and Zai

Similar Meanings of 又 and 再 又 and 再 both of them can be translated as „again“ but their meaning is different.

• 又 expresses reapeating of some event or action, but in the past. Is often acompanied with 了。

昨天他又迟到了，我就发火了。

• 再 expresses reapeating of the exact same event or action, but in the future.

明天他再迟到，我就发火了。

However

• 又 can be also used to express future. It can be used in 3 possible ways:

⁃ It espresses something what will definitely be repeated in the future, usually it is used in a combinations 又是…..了，又该….了，又要…..了。

明天他又要不来，他妈妈生病了。

⁃ It expresses a guess about future. It is often used in combinations with 会 or 要

明天又会下雨。

⁃ It expresses a wish about a future. It is often followed by 要

明天我又要见到他，我就很高兴。

All of those 3 examples do not express repeating of an exact same action in the future, so we can not use 再。

• 再 can be used sometimes to also express past events. It is used in a meaning that something didn’t reapeat in the past.

我没有再给他发短信，我们分手了已经很长时间了。

Different meanings of 再 and 又

Here are some examples. For more detailed information see also Again in the future with "zai" or „Again in the past with "you"

Various usages of 再

• 再 can express graduation.

给我再大一点的吧。

• 再 can express comparison

没有比她再漂亮的女孩子

• 再 as „And than…“

先吃完饭再说话。

• 再 as „Another“

再来一瓶啤酒

• 再….下去 in „If oit goes on like this, than . . . „

再这么干下去，我就走了。

• 再不 - as „If“

你再不回家，父母很着急。

• 再 in „Never again“ － 再也不／不再／再不

Both of them means the end of some action, but there are differences in the meanings. ⁃ 再不 - strong decision.

我再不抽烟，抽烟对身体不好。 ⁃ 不再 - objective statement.

明天我不再抽烟，因为我没有钱买烟。

Whe it is a course of events that can not be influenced by a person, than we can not use 再不. There are sentences, where we can use both 再不 and 不再, but sentence with 再不 has much stronger meaning.

我不再喝酒。I will not drink again.

我再不喝酒。I definitely will not drink again!

⁃ ?再不 and 再也不 have the exact same meaning?

Various usages of 又

• 又 as „also“

他很笨，又很丑。

• 又 expressing a process

他改了又改了，还是没好。

• 又 as „still“

我告诉他我不想他在这里，他又不走。

• 又 in double negative sentences

你又不是不知道，我现在不拿工资，哪儿会有钱。

• 又 in inerogative sentence

那边不高，又有什么可怕的？

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