但有时候挖了半天 也走不动
“But sometimes, even after digging for ages, we still couldn't move.”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
一起推车
“and pushing the car together.”
但有时候挖了半天 也走不动
“But sometimes, even after digging for ages, we still couldn't move.”
有次陷了三天呢
“Once, we were stuck for three days.”
Direct spoken expression in this communicative setting.
Chinese speakers frequently use '半天' (half a day) colloquially to emphasize that an action took an exasperatingly long time without success.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
dug for ages / spent a long time digging
The time expression '半天' figuratively denotes a prolonged, exhausting effort rather than literally half a day.
unable to move / immobilized
A common potential complement indicating that a person or vehicle is stuck or too exhausted to proceed.
