眼看（着）…，却…
to watch something happen and be unable to stop it
Structure
眼看着 变化一点点发生 ， 主语 却 无能为力／毫无办法／只能…
What it means
To watch a change happen before one's eyes and be powerless to stop it. It suits loss, decline and disaster.
How it is built
眼看着 + change in progress (often with 一天天, 一点点, 一个个)，+ subject + 却 + helplessness (无能为力, 毫无办法, 只能…): 眼看着河水一点点涨上来，村民们却毫无办法 (The villagers watched the river rise and could do nothing).
When to use it
Common in both writing and speech; the 却 clause carries the point, what one cannot do. Without 着, 眼看 + 就要／快…了 usually means 'any moment now' (眼看就要下雨了), and that sense takes no 却.
Watch out
The thing watched must still be happening. ✗ 眼看着他已经走了。 ✓ 眼看着他走远，我却没法叫住他。 Use a change in progress, not a finished result.
Examples
那几年，八十多岁的杨绛天天往医院跑，眼看着亲人一个个离去，却无能为力。
In those years Yang Jiang, by then in her eighties, went to the hospital day after day, watching the people she loved slip away one after the other, powerless to help.
眼看着河水一点点涨上来，村民们却毫无办法。
The villagers watched the river creep higher and higher, and there was nothing they could do.
眼看着老街一条条被拆掉，他却只能用相机把它们拍下来。
He watched the old streets being pulled down one after another, and all he could do was photograph them.
Learn this in Lesson 253 · HSK 9+: 杨绛《我们仨》 (Yang Jiang’s We Three)
A dialogue, a reading, word cards with audio and a drill that uses it, in Learn Chinese with Bao. The first lessons of every level are free.
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