A2
着 — and it stayed that way
How 着 marks a state left behind by an action in Chinese, how it differs from the 在 that marks an action in progress, and the second job it does describing how something was done.
着 after a verb says the state that action produced is still holding. Someone opened the door at some point; what 门开着 tells you is that it is open now.
门开着。
Mén kāizhe.
The door is open.
灯还亮着。
Dēng hái liàngzhe.
The light’s still on.
他手里拿着一本书。
Tā shǒu li názhe yì běn shū.
He’s holding a book.
着 is toneless. The last example is the clearest case of what it means: 拿 is to pick up, a moment’s action, and 拿着 is the holding that follows it.
The difference from 在
在 is the action running. 着 is what the action left behind.
他在开门。
Tā zài kāi mén.
He’s opening the door.
门开着。
Mén kāizhe.
The door is open.
A film and a photograph. English blurs them — the door is opening and the door is open differ by one letter — and Chinese keeps them structurally apart: 在 goes before the verb, 着 after it.
我着看电视。
我在看电视。
着 never goes in front. If the sentence is about something you are in the middle of doing, it wants 在 before the verb.
Saying how something was done
The other job, and the one you will meet most in stories: 着 attaches one verb to another, and the first describes the manner of the second.
他笑着说。
Tā xiàozhe shuō.
He said with a smile.
别站着，坐下吧。
Bié zhànzhe, zuò xià ba.
Don’t stand there — sit down.
他躺着看书。
Tā tǎngzhe kàn shū.
He reads lying down.
The pattern is verb + 着 + main verb, and it comes out in English as -ing, with, or a whole clause, depending. Learning it as a shape rather than as a translation saves a lot of time.
Only some verbs take it
着 needs a verb that leaves something behind. 开, 拿, 穿, 坐, 站, 躺, 挂 all do. Verbs that are over the moment they happen — 死, 到, 完 — do not, and 吃着 and 看着 exist but mean while eating, while looking, which is the manner use above rather than a state.