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I don't know whether I read 中 as なか or ちゅう in the sentence below:

昨日寝る中で電話がありました。

Yuki Inoue
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Dav7n
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2 Answers2

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I would read it as なか. You read 「plain form of a verb + 中」 as 「～～する + なか」, e.g. 「雨が降る[中]{なか}」 cf: 「勉強[中]{ちゅう}」

By the way, 昨日寝る中で電話がありました。 doesn't sound natural. You could say [就寝中]{しゅうしんちゅう}に, 寝ているときに or 寝ている[間]{あいだ}に to mean "while sleeping". Where did you see the sentence? Can you provide the context?

Chocolate
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  • I found this sentence when I was searching about the difference between 間 and 中. There's no context. Anyway, thank you for your answer, it was very helpful and I understand it better now. – Dav7n Nov 21 '16 at 00:24
  • Or again 寝ながら, although ~ながら seems more appropriate when actually doing an action, like 食べながら or 歩きながら (though 寝る is grammatically an action rather than a state). – Right leg Nov 21 '16 at 05:03
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    Definitely not ちゅう, unless ねるちゅう is a new Pokémon I'm not aware of ;-) – Nicolas Miari Nov 21 '16 at 09:03
  • "間に、時に"の方がいいと思います。 – Owl City Nov 21 '16 at 09:57
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    「～ながら」は"while doing~~"の意味で使いますけど、「寝ながら電話がありました」とは言いませんね。 – Chocolate Nov 21 '16 at 14:22
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Since it is an individual word, it should be pronounced as なか.
じゅう(or ちゅう) is used only when 中 is an affix (attached to a noun).

hisao m
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