一连 ＋ 数量 ＋ 时间
in a row; on end; running (without a break)
Structure
主语 ＋ 一连 ＋ 动词（＋了） ＋ 数量 ＋ 时间／次数 ； 一连 ＋ 数量 ＋ 时间 ＋ （都） ＋ 动词
What it means
‘In a row, on end’: stresses that something happened again and again, or went on, without a break. It always needs a number.
How it is built
一连 + verb (+了) + number + time/times, or 一连 + number + time + (都) + verb: 她一连打了五个电话 (she rang five times in a row); 他一连三个晚上都没回家.
When to use it
Speech and narrative writing. 连续 (3-2) is a bit more formal, can drop the number (连续降雨) and go before a noun (连续剧); 接连 (1-19) is ‘one after another’, no number needed.
Watch out
Before the verb or number phrase, never after the verb: ✗下了一连三天 ✓一连下了三天. Without a number it is incomplete: ✗雨一连下了。
Examples
入夏以后，大雨一连下了二十多天。
Once summer came, heavy rain fell for more than twenty days on end.
为了赶这个项目，他一连三个晚上都没回家。
To get the project finished in time he did not go home for three nights running.
她一连打了五个电话，都没人接。
She rang five times in a row and nobody answered.
Learn this in Lesson 171 · HSK 7–9: 1998年的洪水 (The floods of 1998)
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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