Hello.
I JUST started learning Mandarin Chinese last Monday. I got a scholarship to an two-week summer course at a local university. Our teacher has assigned us a project and I need to know how to make something past tense. It's in our textbook, but it's kind of vague and I don't really understand. You usually do something with 了, right? I also read that when you are using past tense, you don't use 不 to negate something, you use 没. Is this true?
I would be SO grateful if someone would help me out on this. Thank you for reading! :)
there are no tenses like in english
As far as I know there is no "past tense" in Mandarin, rather there are contextual and agentive ways of referring to things not in this time. Mandarin's actually a really cool language in terms of its grammar and structure. I should learn a little more of it.
My English isn't the best, sorry. If there are no tenses, then how would you refer to something not in this time? It's not as straightforward as German or English, so it confuses me.
You'd have to find a native speaker to answer that for you I'm afraid, heh. I've not studied Mandarin in depth so I couldn't know for sure. You might wanna try the Ethnologue (http://www.ethnologue.com/) entry for Mandarin - it'll probably have some useful links to more info.
In advance, sorry for the tl;dr;.
My knowledge of characters is awful (sorry), but I can provide some grammar help with pinyin (I only have a year of Chinese under my belt).
Basically, tense is shown using the time. The particle "le" (了, the character you used) is the particle used to indicate that something in process is at an end. For instance, when saying "What time is it now?" [xianzai shi ji dian le?], the "le" is a vestige of the fact that the clock has reached the current point in time. The "le" particle can be a little confusing, but it mostly comes into play when talking about age or time.
I'll try to give some examples of past tense usage:
Zuotian(2,1) women(3,1) da(3) lan(2) qiu(2).
Yesterday we played basketball.
[Tones are marked in the parentheses. Again, sorry for me being awful with characters.]
For this, all I needed to say when the action happened. In this way, the idea of a basic preterite is formed (I did it yesterday, the action was completed). Ongoing action initiated in the past is not something I'm familiar with in Chinese (1 year doesn't get you very far, especially with a teacher who isn't very good).
This same idea can be applied to future events as well. "xing qi liu wan sheng wo hen mang" [saturday evening I am very busy]. "wanshang liu dian ban women chi wanfan" [we'll have dinner at 6:30PM]. Again, sorry about toneless pinyin (and no characters).
Hrm... that's a basic idea of it. The "le" particle is a little confusing (and I'll fully admit not knowing completely how and where it is used).
Just remember the general format:
[time] [subject] [verb] [modifier] [object] [particles]
Yeah...
Again, anyone with more experience, feel free to correct anything I just said.
Same poster as >>6:
I just found a bit more about "le" (sorry). It is generally used for (and I'm mostly quoting from my notes, for good or for ill) "le indicates an ongoing process, or something already done or completed". The only good example of this I have is "Shang ke le" [class has started] and "xia ke le" [class has ended]. They use the "le" particle to indicate that the stated condition has already occured - "class has already started", in a way.
I'm really not helping on this whole tl;dr; business. :P
Bak por!
>>9
Etou.
ya it's true, i'm a sort of a native speaker of mandarin and having to think about your question is really a challenge , XD
mandarin usually follows this rule:
each column represents words/phrases
(adjective/descriptive)(main)(situation)(verb)(additive information)((adjective/descriptive again)(object)
eg.
(na zhi) (mao)( zai jie shang)( ci)( zhe) (shi) (laoshu)
which literally means:
that cat in street eat- -ing dead mice
ya no tense in chinese but like japanese which has particles, chinese has zhe to mean -ing, le to mean -done before and many other too
oops typo the main there i meant subject, too bad i can't edit on 4ch, i thought main as subject because zhuyu literally means main phrase (subject)
I'm also a new Chinese speaker (well, not that new in comparison... I've been studying it for 3 years now), but I'm pretty sure verbs themselves don't have a past tense. You add "le" (sorry, my computer doesn't display Chinese - the character is very simple, it looks almost like the number 3) after the verb. Or at the end of the sentence. I can't remember when to use either one.
Eg:
"Wo mai le yi ben shu" means "I bought a book."
"Wo kan shu le" means "I read a book."
I hope that helps... I'm not a native speaker myself, any natives out there feel free to correct me.
@ #2... English does have tenses so don't confuse someone. Chinese has no tenses but English has just as many tenses as spanish (i do, i did, i will do, i would do, i have done, i have been doing, etc.) Tenses are the main foundation of many languages, but, How does Chinese function with no tenses? Or do they just like to say they have no tenses?
I started studying Chinese only 3 months ago, so I can't speak how Chinese really works. But I do know that a language doesn't always need verb tenses. It just need to inform when something happened or will happen (and if it is completed or not and so on).
Even in English this kind of construction is possible:
"I'm going to Brazil."
and
"Next month I'm going to Brazil" (future meaning).
Similarly, it would be possible to say something like:
"Yesterday I finally finish the book"
Of course this is incorrect in English, but "yesterday" is enough to indicate that the event occurred in the past.
If you talk about verb forms, then English has lots. For the verb "go" you have: go, goes, went, gone, going, etc. In Chinese languages you just have "go", the character doesn't change at all. As mentioned previously, the time phrases indicate the differences. But when there are no time phrases, there are particles or post-characters that modify the word "go", for example:
past: le
perfect tenses: guo
If I say "I go to Italy." in Mandarin it transliterates: "I go Italy"
Change that to past, and it's "I go-le Italy."
Present perfect becomes "I go-guo Italy."
So to say chinese has no tenses is technically correct, but they do have post-modifiers.
OK, I can say that a decade of Mandarin has made me a reluctant bilingual or trilingual if I consider French, but I was never an avid user of Chinese (my mother tongue), and I consider English as my primary language.
You can use explicit references of time like
in English tone is just for phrase emphasis but in Chinese it makes a whole lot of difference.
1 flat
2 up
3 retro-circumflex (up-down)
4 down
yesterday 昨天 zuo(2)tian(1)
today 今天 jin(1)tian(1)
tomorrow 明天 ming(2)tian(1)
the day after 后天 hou(4)tian(1)
last/next week/month 上/下个星期/月
and qu(4)nian(2)jin(1)nian(2)/ming(2)nian(2)/hou(4)nian(2)
去/今/明/后年
for years
Usage pronoun+time frame+ qualifier + action + any appropriate expressive words like le(4)
Past tense
has perfect tense/participle
wo(3)yi(3)jing(1)+verb/action eg,chi(1)fan(4)+le(4)
我(point of time)已经吃饭了 (it would be weird to omit le 了 here)
so 已经 represents that you had already done something you can add a time frame (here)
or 我吃过饭了 -just mean that something has happened
guo(4) le is optional hereor 我吃完饭了。 - you can do away with le here
wan(2)-to finish
le in this context is sort of to express your urgency in replying or emphasize that you are about to finish your current action
this makes sentences sound more complete by adding descriptors or adjectives
Present continous
has 正在 (currently)in the process of doing something or it refers to now
我正在吃饭 - I am eating now
the exact translation would be eating rice, but of course rice is a staple, so it simply refers to eating a meal.
or 早／午／晚餐 breakfast.....
zao(3)/wu(3)/Wan(3)can(1)or (cHan)though official hanyupinyin is can
another marker would be 着 (zhe)4, though I prefer the first one as you have to insert it in between chi and fan or chi zhe wan can
The near future (about to)
要(yao)4 - to want
快要 (kuai)4(yao)4 - about to
我(现在）快要吃饭了
so it's wo kuai yao chi fan le - le is just an expression
I'm about to eat (now)
马上 ma(3)shang(4)- immediately
我马上要吃饭(了)。 - I about to eat immediately
But you can add a time frame like 3 months later (三个月后) like when you're going for vacation
Distant future
我(以后)肯定会(再)来这里
wo(3)yi(3)hou(4)hui(4)lai(2)zhe(4)li(3)
I will certainly come here again in future.
会hui(3)-something that takes the place of 'will' and perhaps add a qualifier of confirming that you will definitely 肯定 ken(3)ding(4) do an action
以后 yi(3)hou(4) - the next time/sometime later
再 zai(4) again
expression of a possiblity
可能 ke(3)neng(2) - may/maybe/perhaps
能 alone by itself mean can
我可能会再来
I may come here again.
that probably sums up all you need to know
they are qualifiers or adverbs
but basic syntax is only the beginning. the next step is to amass a whole plethora of common idioms or 4 word phrases that are commonly used grab a PRC newspaper
it really takes someone with a good memory to remember thousands of characters.
Each time you learn a character, learn how you can form compound words to create proper nouns
there are only 26 letters in the Latin alphabet but with all those strokes, you will need to memorize them. even Japanese hiragana represent sounds (so there are up to 30-40 of them only.
Au revoir
Good luck and persevere
OK, I can say that a decade of Mandarin has made me a reluctant bilingual or trilingual if I consider French, but I was never an avid user of Chinese (my mother tongue), and I consider English as my primary language.
You can use explicit references of time like
in English tone is just for phrase emphasis but in Chinese it makes a whole lot of difference.
1 flat
2 up
3 retro-circumflex (up-down)
4 down
yesterday 昨天 zuo(2)tian(1)
today 今天 jin(1)tian(1)
tomorrow 明天 ming(2)tian(1)
the day after 后天 hou(4)tian(1)
last/next week/month 上/下个星期/月
and qu(4)nian(2)jin(1)nian(2)/ming(2)nian(2)/hou(4)nian(2)
去/今/明/后年
for years
Usage pronoun+time frame+ qualifier + action + any appropriate expressive words like le(4)
Past tense
has perfect tense/participle
wo(3)yi(3)jing(1)+verb/action eg,chi(1)fan(4)+le(4)
我(point of time)已经吃饭了 (it would be weird to omit le 了 here)
so 已经 represents that you had already done something you can add a time frame (here)
or 我吃过饭了 -just mean that something has happened
guo(4) le is optional hereor 我吃完饭了。 - you can do away with le here
wan(2)-to finish
le in this context is sort of to express your urgency in replying or emphasize that you are about to finish your current action
this makes sentences sound more complete by adding descriptors or adjectives
Present continous
has 正在 (currently)in the process of doing something or it refers to now
我正在吃饭 - I am eating now
the exact translation would be eating rice, but of course rice is a staple, so it simply refers to eating a meal.
or 早／午／晚餐 breakfast.....
zao(3)/wu(3)/Wan(3)can(1)or (cHan)though official hanyupinyin is can
another marker would be 着 (zhe)4, though I prefer the first one as you have to insert it in between chi and fan or chi zhe wan can
The near future (about to)
要(yao)4 - to want
快要 (kuai)4(yao)4 - about to
我(现在）快要吃饭了
so it's wo kuai yao chi fan le - le is just an expression
I'm about to eat (now)
马上 ma(3)shang(4)- immediately
我马上要吃饭(了)。 - I about to eat immediately
But you can add a time frame like 3 months later (三个月后) like when you're going for vacation
Distant future
我(以后)肯定会(再)来这里
wo(3)yi(3)hou(4)hui(4)lai(2)zhe(4)li(3)
I will certainly come here again in future.
会hui(3)-something that takes the place of 'will' and perhaps add a qualifier of confirming that you will definitely 肯定 ken(3)ding(4) do an action
以后 yi(3)hou(4) - the next time/sometime later
再 zai(4) again
expression of a possiblity
可能 ke(3)neng(2) - may/maybe/perhaps
能 alone by itself mean can
我可能会再来
I may come here again.
that probably sums up all you need to know
they are qualifiers or adverbs
but basic syntax is only the beginning. the next step is to amass a whole plethora of common idioms or 4 word phrases that are commonly used grab a PRC newspaper
it really takes someone with a good memory to remember thousands of characters.
Each time you learn a character, learn how you can form compound words to create proper nouns
there are only 26 letters in the Latin alphabet but with all those strokes, you will need to memorize them. even Japanese hiragana represent sounds (so there are up to 30-40 of them only.
Au revoir
Good luck and persevere
shit I just spammed this page
Pls delete the unnecessary post if you can
Last words.
Most of the time, was will still be written in the present tense with 是, since what happened in the past is a fact.
in most cases, especially in reporting or formal writing, there is no past tense,
but readers of course know it happened by looking out for time markers
Good link here
http://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/zdmM2UyY/Time%20in%20Chinese
just read the first page and the introduction