聊天一会儿 or 聊一会儿天?

Question

I thought it should be 聊一会儿天, since the measure words should be put right after the verb, like in 吃一点儿东西，参观一次长城. But there are a lot more results of 聊天一会儿 on Google. (74,200 vs 18,100)

Can someone explain why is that?

Thank you

Answer 1

“聊一会儿天” is the more commonly used version.

Searching on Google, some “聊天一会儿”'s results are like “来聊天一会儿删”, in which it is actually “来聊天，一会儿删”。

Using my Google, “聊一会儿天” shows more results in fact. (742,000 vs 705,000)

Answer 2

My Google search gave similar results (with quotes):

"聊天一会儿" (72,500 results)

"聊一会儿天" (14,600 results)

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You are right that the 1st phrase is not correct. But let's take a closer look at some results:

一会儿和同事聊聊天,一会儿在QQ上和网友说说话。

为什么我在红米上qq只聊天一会儿就好了很多流量.

刚才哥儿几个聊天，中间我出去一会儿。回来后，大伙儿看我直乐.

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See, by putting a comma or rearranging the words, they now have the correct syntax. Since these are more frequently used than 聊一会儿天 (at least in writing), Google found more articles, which makes sense.

Answer 3

聊一会儿天 is correct, the "一" can be omitted in speaking.

More examples: 打(一)会儿游戏, 看(一)会儿书, 听(一)会儿音乐.

Answer 4

You should check the search result in context，聊天一会儿 may came from a piece of sentence which has the meaning other than “talk for a while”.

Answer 5

To be honest, most of the chinese in the world are come from china. If you want to learn the original chinese, then 聊一会儿天 should be the correct one.

聊天一会儿 sounds weird because 聊 is the verb, 天 just a word which "supports" the verb。So instead we add 一会儿 right after 聊, not after the "support word"

Answer 6

"聊天一会儿" is not Chinese sentence, no one say like that, "聊一会儿天" is people say all the time.

Answer 7

I would suggest 一会儿聊天。 我要和她一会儿聊天。(I'm going to chat with her in a while). It sounds more natural. Like in English, the order of word changes the whole signification of the sentence. 一会儿 = time indicator 聊天＝Verb You can also say 待会儿聊天，which has almost the same meaning.

Answer 8

My font of all knowledge from 泰州 also immediately said: '聊一会儿天‘是对的。

She would not say: '聊天一会儿‘， but she can't say why not.

Answer 9

The truth is, no native Chinese speakers say, 聊天一会儿, but 聊一会儿天. There is no explanation to any linguistic usage or grammar, unfortunately.

So, never say 聊天一会儿, but only 聊一会儿天? Maybe because 聊天 is a loose word or compound word, so you can say 聊什么天，never 聊天什么。

Answer 10

聊天一会儿 is the correct one.

• 聊天= chit chat
• 一会儿 = a moment

聊一会儿天 is the incorrect one.

• 聊= talk, chat
• 一会儿 = a moment
• 天 = sky

The better ways to say it will be 聊聊，谈心，聊一下，说八卦。Don't use 儿 because it also means son, and because 儿 (er) is merely an accent for some part of China. it doesn't add any meaning to your sentence.