<p>If you wish to say, &quot;I normally go to work in the morning.&quot; try like this:</p>
<p>我平时上午上班。</p>
<p>EDIT</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&quot;is the sentence that I provide wrong?&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The general consensus from people I ask is 上午我平时 &quot;sounds funny&quot;.</p>
<p>I think the problem with moving the time to the front is the repetitive nature of the statement using 平时.</p>
<p>That said, people will accept 平时上午我上班。and 上午我上班。</p>
<p>It is easy to put time first when you talk about a single event.</p>
<pre><code>1. 上午我去了学校。
2. 今天上午邮件很多。
3. 今天上午发生了一件怪事。
</code></pre>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-13T23:15:13.873Z
Thanks, Pedroski it sounds ok to me,  but, still have the doubt... is the sentence that I provide wrong? I mean, it supposed the Time Word and the noun can be interchangeable...that's why I doubting...
Lola
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-14T03:16:22.383Z
Using your pattern, you can say 上午我"一般都在"上班.
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-13T22:42:22.000Z
2022-12-14T23:08:00.753Z
2022-12-14T23:08:00.753Z
Pedroski
<p>There's no rule against a time word being used ahead of a clause containing 平时. What doesn't work here is the logical sequence of time adverbs. Word order in Chinese depends on information structure (old vs new information), so it's not fixed by arbitrary rules but strict semantic hierarchy.</p>
<p>What you likely mean by 平时 is a qualification of the time of action, ie you want to say that the action happens &quot;usually in the morning&quot; or in other words &quot;most mornings&quot;, rather than all mornings or only one specific morning. If that's the case, Chinese prefers that you warn about the quality of this time adverb ahead of the time adverb itself (because general modifiers come before the specific instance of what they're modifying), as in Pedroski's 我平时上午上班, which sounds much better.</p>
<p>If instead you want to directly qualify 上班 (to mean you &quot;usually&quot; go to work), and still leave &quot;morning&quot; as background information, then you really want another word or phrase, as in r13's 上午我&quot;一般都在&quot;上班. Part of the reason for this is that the 时 in 平时 refers to 时间, but 上午 is already a specific 时间 - and you can't have a specific instance of 时间 followed by a more general one (because of same word-order principle outlined above).</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-15T22:52:02.883Z
Super wow!!! thanks, Sanchuan... I totally got it.   :)
Lola
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-14T11:42:15.013Z
2022-12-14T17:17:11.900Z
2022-12-14T17:17:11.900Z
Sanchuan
<p>is this sentence ok? 上午我平时上班 / 学习 /锻炼 等等
I wonder if the adverb 平时 can be used as follow: Time+ 平时+activity</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for your kind explanations :)</p>

<grammar><sentence-structure>
Is this sentence structure ok? Time+ 平时+activity
# Is this sentence structure ok? Time+ 平时+activity

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-12-13)

is this sentence ok? 上午我平时上班 / 学习 /锻炼 等等
I wonder if the adverb 平时 can be used as follow: Time+ 平时+activity

Thanks in advance for your kind explanations :)

**Tags:** grammar, sentence-structure


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-12-13. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

If you wish to say, "I normally go to work in the morning." try like this:

我平时上午上班。

EDIT

> "is the sentence that I provide wrong?"

The general consensus from people I ask is 上午我平时 "sounds funny".

I think the problem with moving the time to the front is the repetitive nature of the statement using 平时.

That said, people will accept 平时上午我上班。and 上午我上班。

It is easy to put time first when you talk about a single event.

```
1. 上午我去了学校。
2. 今天上午邮件很多。
3. 今天上午发生了一件怪事。

```

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks, username_1 it sounds ok to me,  but, still have the doubt... is the sentence that I provide wrong? I mean, it supposed the Time Word and the noun can be interchangeable...that's why I doubting...  
> **username_2**: Using your pattern, you can say 上午我"一般都在"上班.  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2022-12-14. Score: 1

There's no rule against a time word being used ahead of a clause containing 平时. What doesn't work here is the logical sequence of time adverbs. Word order in Chinese depends on information structure (old vs new information), so it's not fixed by arbitrary rules but strict semantic hierarchy.

What you likely mean by 平时 is a qualification of the time of action, ie you want to say that the action happens "usually in the morning" or in other words "most mornings", rather than all mornings or only one specific morning. If that's the case, Chinese prefers that you warn about the quality of this time adverb ahead of the time adverb itself (because general modifiers come before the specific instance of what they're modifying), as in username_1's 我平时上午上班, which sounds much better.

If instead you want to directly qualify 上班 (to mean you "usually" go to work), and still leave "morning" as background information, then you really want another word or phrase, as in r13's 上午我"一般都在"上班. Part of the reason for this is that the 时 in 平时 refers to 时间, but 上午 is already a specific 时间 - and you can't have a specific instance of 时间 followed by a more general one (because of same word-order principle outlined above).

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Super wow!!! thanks, username_3... I totally got it.   :)  

---

