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I'm trying to say that "she will go eat after playing tennis with her friends" but I want to know if there are better ways of saying this then the ones I'm about to show

她和朋友打了网球，她去吃饭。

or

她跟朋友打网球以后，她去吃饭。

Right now these sentences sound really choppy to me. If it's better to keep a consistent subject, then I'm wondering if there's any way I can put "with friends" after the verb and not with the subject. For example, maybe something like

她先打网球跟朋友，在去吃饭。

Again, any alternative ways of expression would be appreciated.

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2 Answers 2

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Actually the second one is quite natural.

她跟朋友打网球以后，她去吃饭。

This is actually the most legit you can get for this case, otherwise you will have to alter the meaning of your sentence a bit. Like:

她在网球场和朋友约好了， 然后再去吃饭。

Which means, she had a plan to go to tennis with her friends, and then dinner.

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    What is the meaning of 约好 in this context? I'm a bit of novice so I'm sorry if it seems like a dumb question. I know 约 means to make an appointment but why add the 好?
    – Chris Gong
    Apr 22, 2016 at 1:14
  • They present the same thing if that's what you asking for, you can say either 约好了or 约了 for an appointment.
    – libra
    Apr 22, 2016 at 1:23
  • actually there's a bit difference, in comparison to 约了， 约好了 emphasise that the appointment has been made, and it's set.
    – libra
    Apr 22, 2016 at 1:26
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    @ChrisG, it's a grammatical structure called the Resultative Complement, in Chinese known as 结果补语. You can Google it, and this one: ctcfl.ox.ac.uk/Grammar%20exercises/RVC.htm has good information. In this case, the result of the verb 约 (to make an appointment) is 好, as in, it's been planned. It's not in the process of planning or intending on planning, the appointment "is set." Grammatical structures like this are intermediate level, so it's probably not worthwhile investigating this too much right now. You'll learn it later.
    – Ming
    Apr 22, 2016 at 1:36
  • The 她 in the second clause feels unnatural, although this otherwise fits what I have in mind.
    – user5714
    Apr 23, 2016 at 19:53
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Its best to use "先...然后(first...and then)" or "之后(after)...再" to describe a sequence of events one after another.

她先跟朋友打网球，然后再去吃饭。(She's going to play tennis with friends first(先), (然后)then she will eat.

or

她跟朋友打完网球之后，再去吃饭。

or even shorter...

她跟朋友打完网球，再去吃饭。

notice the use of 打完, it means after she finishes tennis, instead of 打 which translate to after she plays tennis.

Your first and second sentence 她和朋友打了网球，她去吃饭 doesn't need "她" again on the second part, because you've already said it in the beginning. So you can just say 她和朋友打了网球, 再去吃饭。

Your third sentence is very close, 她先打网球跟朋友，在去吃饭。Just abit of misspelling and rearrange the words so its 她先跟朋友打网球, 再去吃饭。

So there are several ways of achieving what you want to say.

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  • But doesn't "她和朋友打了网球, 再去吃饭" mean that she AND her friends will go eat after playing tennis when I want to say only she will go eat?
    – Chris Gong
    Apr 22, 2016 at 14:19
  • @Chris G Ill use the word她们instead of 她 for this. so its 她们打了网球，再去吃饭, that means they will go eat together.
    – Mindless
    Apr 23, 2016 at 9:43
  • Doesn't 再 only work if the action is at the very least, implicitly being repeated?
    – user5714
    Apr 23, 2016 at 19:55

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