On Instagram I saw the phrase ミンニーはマイキーがフォロー中. But I am unfamiliar with this reading; How am I supposed to understand that 中 means “following”?
～中 as a suffix means “in the process of doing ～” or “currently ～ing”
It’s read as ちゅう
会議 meeting 会議中 in a meeting
在宅勤務 telework 在宅勤務中 currently teleworking
フォロー follow フォロー中 currently following
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Think of it as “in the middle of doing…”
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The verb する wasn’t explicit; should I just assume that verb exists if no other verb is present?
I’m not sure what other verbs you’re imagining as candidates, but the definition in Japanese is
現にその活動をしていることを表す。
So you can basically think of 中 standing in for をしている.
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My wireless headset always says “一つのデバイスが接続中” in Japanese.
In English it’s “one device connected”.
Does the Japanese version mean “is connecting” (as I would have thought) or “is connected” or both?
What about “同期中” for “is syncing” or “is synced”?
I get the feeling that they could be used for both in Japanese. But for me it is quite a difference if the process is still going on and might fail or if it has been completed.
It’s „in the middle” of the connecting or syncing activity, however the activity is described in the preceding words.
Having 中 is not really any different from how している would work normally with such a verb. “State change” verbs with している indicate “the change occurred and is still in effect.”
Since 接続する describes a change from “not connected” to “connected”, 接続している and 接続中 describe a state of remaining connected, not a state of perpetually attempting to connect.
同期する may be different, I’m not sure if it’s a state change verb or not. Judging from a google image search, it looks like 同期中 typically refers to a state of ongoing synchronization/copying.
There are indeed some verbs where it’s possible for them to have a state change usage and an active usage. In those cases, context has to determine the meaning.
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