# 你吃饭了没有?



## vince

Moderator's Note: Split from this thread 


boardslide315 said:


> [...], and the more colloquial "Ni chifan le meiyou?" (A common greeting, literally meaning "Have you eaten yet")



Is this really correct? How can the "le" (了 - perfective verb marker) be separated from the verb (吃 _chi_) in this way?

I am asking this because from what I know in Cantonese Chinese, this would be impossible: "Have you eaten (rice) yet?"  (你食咗饭未呀? _nei sik-*zo* faan mei aa_?) cannot be written as 你食饭咗未呀 _nei sik faan *zo* mei aa_. (咗 _zo_ is the perfective verb marker in Cantonese)

Shouldn't the Mandarin phrase for "Have you eaten (rice) yet?" be: *Ni chi-le fan meiyou? (*你吃了饭*沒有)*


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## MingRaymond

You are right, Vince. In Cantonese, it is incorrect to say 你食飯咗未呀？ But in Mandarin, both 你吃了飯沒有？ and 你吃飯了沒有？ are correct. 

Ming


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## boardslide315

Chifan is literally means "to eat" in mandarin, correct? Isn't it more or less   interchangeable with chi?


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## Gavin

chi  means  'to eat'  fan means ' meal'   chifan in English means ' have a meal'


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## boardslide315

ah, ok thanks


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## J.F. de TROYES

I'd just liked to add that "chi1" is one of these verbs that must always be used with a name:

   to eat = chi1 fan4
   to eat fish= chi1 yu2

A specific word like "fan" (rice) after "chi1" is necessary ,if you don't use another object. The same for many other verbs like "zou3" (to walk) that has to be followed by "lu4" (road) or "shuo1" (to speak) by "hua4" (word) .
Chinese was first chiefly made up of one-syllable words, but gradually the two-syllable words were more and more frequent; maybe that ewplains why these verbs always need a direct object.


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## piano0011

with regard to one of the posts above, ni chi fan le ma = have you eaten yet? Is it also grammatically correct to say? ni chi le ma? can I drop the word fan4?


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## SuperXW

piano0011 said:


> with regard to one of the posts above, ni chi fan le ma = have you eaten yet? Is it also grammatically correct to say? ni chi le ma? can I drop the word fan4?


"ni chi fan le ma" clearly means "have you had breakfast/lunch/supper", as "fan" refers to the meals.
If you drop "fan", the object of "eat" would be unclear. The speaker may mean "have you eaten the candy I just gave you?"

Only in Beijing dialect, "chi le ma" itself can mean "ni chi fan le ma" and is considered as a general way of greeting, but it is just an informal way of greeting for the natives.


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## piano0011

Also from my understanding, le is usually placed at the end of a sentence as in:

 Ni3 chi1 shen2me le? = what did you eat?

Is it also grammatically correct to say?

Ni3 chi1 le shen2me?


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## SuperXW

^
le0 is common to be placed at 1. the end of a sentence; 2. right after a verb.
So both of them are correct.
There will be difference if the sentence gets more complicate, but we'll explain that when you meet the examples, not in this thread perhaps.


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## piano0011

and just a reminder that when one add "le", it is to state a completion of an action? but for this sentence? I thought you wouldn't need to add "le" but my friends use "le" here:

"xianzai tai4 zao3 le!" = it is now too early!


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## piano0011

I am still confused with the above message because I thought that by adding "le" it is to indicate a complete action? or does this only emphasise the word "tai" because I realised that "le" is only used after the word "tai"?

Also for the following sentences, I don't think I need to add "le" here correct because it is not the past tense?

1) ni3 zhong1wen2 shuo1 de hen3 hao3 = you speak chinese very well

2) ni3 chi1 fan4 chi1 de hen kuai4 = you eat very fast

Also, is it grammatically correct to just say?

3) ni3 chi1 de hen kuai4 = you eat very fast instead of saying the longer sentence in number 2?


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## SuperXW

le0 is a rather complicate issue, you may want to learn from other questions regarding 了.
le0 does not only signifies the completion of an action, it can also signifies the completion of a status, a sentence... etc.

You can consider "tai4 ... le0" a fixed structure.

For your sentences, we usually do not add le0.
However, adding le0 is still possible in particular contexts, for example:
ni3 zhong1wen2 shuo1 de hen3 hao3 *le0*, bu2yong4 zai4 lian4 le0. = you *"already"* speak Chinese very well, no need to practice anymore.

For 3), the answer is yes, but it doesn't concern le0. So it should be discussed in another thread.


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