Does Chinese language have "past tense"?
Hello, everyone! Welcome to join Silk Mandarin today to solve your Chinese grammatical puzzle.
Today, We're gonna introduce you the "past tense" in Chinese.
Listen the audio below to learn more about this structure:
We have loads of questions from the Chinese learners asking about the "past tense" in Chinese.
Since you already know the Chinese language doesn't have conjugations, how do Chinese people express things in the past?
You might also know that we have a famous particle "了(le)". However, "了 (le)" is not a past tense marker in Chinese as we also can use "了 (le)" in the future.
For example:
明天下午我已经离开上海了。
Míngtiān xiàwǔ wǒ yǐjīng líkāi Shànghǎi le。
I've already left Shanghai tomorrow afternoon.
So, you see? Actually "了 (le)" doesn't necessarily mean "the past", it means "the occurrence of an action".
1️⃣V + 了(le)
Of course, a lot of past things have happened are also completed, so you hear lots of "V+了 (le)" in the expressions about the past.
For example:
我喝了一瓶啤酒。
Wǒ hē le yì píng píjiǔ。
I've drunk a bottle of beer.
昨天我们学习了第二课。
Zuótiān wǒmen xuéxí le dì èr kè。
We learnt Lesson2 yesterday.
Apart from "了(le)", in the Chinese language, when we talk about things happened in the past, we also often apply the other two structures. You need to pay special attention to these two structures as English speakers don't differentiate these expressions.
2️⃣是 (shì)……的 (de)
You might have noticed that Chinese people use "的(de)" a lot when they talk, many times is the "的(de)" from this structure.
People use "了" to tell others that he/she completed something in the past. However, when they continue to talk about the details of this past thing such as when it happened, where it happened, how it happened, who did it, they will switch to "是 (shì)……的 (de)".
For example:
我是在学校认识中国朋友的。
Wǒ shì zài xuéxiào rènshi de。
I got to know my Chinese friend in school.
我是去年认识中国朋友的。
Wǒ shì qù nián rènshi zhōngguó péngyou de。
I got to know my Chinese friend last year.
我是坐地铁来学校的。
Wǒ shì zuò dìtiě lái xuéxiào de。
I came to school by metro.
今天的菜是妈妈做的。
Jīntiān de cài shì māma zuò de。
Mom made today's meal.
3️⃣The third structure Chinese people use to describe the past is the particle "过(guò)".
Compared the previous two, V+过 (guò) emphasizes on the experience gained from the past, and also the influence that the past experience has on the current topic.
For example:
我吃过饺子，我很喜欢。
Wǒ chī guò jiǎozi, wǒ hěn xǐhuān。
I've eaten dumplings, and I like it.
我以前在上海工作过，所以我看得懂中文。
Wǒ yǐqián zài Shànghǎi gōngzuò guo, suǒyǐ wǒ kàn de dǒng Zhōngwén。
I’ve worked in Shanghai before, so I can understand Mandarin.
Got it? Use these 3 structures to talk about "the past" more freely!
Join me next time to explore Chinese grammar in this way. You will definitely make your expressions more native!
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