# past tense



## linguist786

The past tense in Mandarin has been sporadically discussed in a few threads on this forum. I thought I would make a thread especially for it. It will bring everything together and make it clearer in my own head as well as others'. I also have some questions.

(This is what I *think*, so correct me in every way, no matter how small the mistake might be!)

1. Using timing words - tense is clear, so nothing else is needed. Examples:

*去年我去美国 - Last year I went to America*
*上个星期他们都喝红葡萄酒 - Last week they all drank red wine*
*昨天你吃吗？- Did you eat yesterday?*

2. Using "le" - shows a completed event taken place (once) in the past. In English, this translates to "I went..", "I ate", "I sat.." etc. In questions, it would translate to "Did you...?". Examples:

*我去了美国 - I went to America *
*他们都喝了红葡萄酒 - They all drank red wine*
*你吃了吗？- Did you eat?*

3. Adding "mei you" at the end of the sentence to ask a question. (or "you mei you" in the middle). Examples:

*你吃没吃？/你吃没有？- Did you eat?*
*尼喝没喝酒？/你喝没有？- Did you drink wine?*

3. Using "guó le" - translates to "I *have* gone..", "I *have* eaten..", "I *have* sat..". In questions, "Have you...?" Examples:

*我去过了美国 - I have been to China (or is it: "I have gone to China"?) - or neither? *
*他们都过了红葡萄酒 - They have all drunk red wine*
*你吃过了吗？ - Have you eaten?*

(I have a feeling this only works in questions..)

What have I missed out? (probably a lot!)
How would you say "I used to..". For example: "I used to drink wine but not anymore"?


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## I_like_my_TV

There is no past tense in Mandarin, but there are attempts to map the English past tense onto Mandarin. As learners, one needs to very careful not to mix up the two. In addition, "tense" and "aspect" also need to be kept separate (过 and了 in Chinese are aspect-markers and not tense-markers).


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## linguist786

I guess I should be more careful with the terminology. 
Are the examples & their translations correct though?


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## samanthalee

linguist786 said:


> I guess I should be more careful with the terminology.
> Are the examples & their translations correct though?


1. Using timing words - tense is clear, so nothing else is needed. Examples:

*去年我去美国 - Last year I went to America *
*上个星期他们都喝红葡萄酒 - Last week they all drank red wine *
*(I think it means: "They drank wine for the whole of last week." Change the 都 to 全 and you will be right.)*
*昨天你吃吗？- Did you eat yesterday? *
*(This means "Do you eat yesterday?" as in "Is yesterday an acceptable food for you?". Subsitute "yesterday" with "rat" and you'll get what I mean. The expected answer to this question structure is "Of course not!")*

2. Using "le" - shows a completed event taken place (once) in the past. In English, this translates to "I went..", "I ate", "I sat.." etc. In questions, it would translate to "Did you...?". Examples:

*我去了美国 - I went to America  *
*他们都喝了红葡萄酒 - They all drank red wine *
*你吃了吗？- Did you eat?*
*(你吃了吗？- Have you eaten?)*
*(你有吃吗？- Did you eat?)*

3. Adding "mei you" at the end of the sentence to ask a question. (or "you mei you" in the middle). Examples:

*你吃没吃？/你吃没有？- Did you eat? *
*尼喝没喝酒？/你喝没有？- Did you drink wine? *
*("吃没吃" and "喝没喝" are rather awkward.)*


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## samanthalee

3. Using "guó le" - translates to "I *have* gone..", "I *have* eaten..", "I *have* sat..". In questions, "Have you...?" Examples:

*我去过了美国 - I have been to China (or is it: "I have gone to China"?) - or neither?   *
*(The exclamation mark is there because I'm sure you mean America.)*
*他们都喝过了红葡萄酒 - They have all drunk red wine *
*你吃过了吗？ - Have you eaten? *


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## I_like_my_TV

linguist786 said:
			
		

> I guess I should be more careful with the terminology.


My earlier comment was a kind of contribution to the thread, as a kind of reminder, and not to fuss about your use of terminology.


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## Jean1008

"have been to" ==> 「曾經去過....」或「剛才去了....」==> 人已回來
"have gone to" ==> 「已經去了...」==> 人未回來，通常指他人，用第三人稱

For example:
I have been to America. => 我曾經去過美國。
I have just been to the station to see her off. => 我剛才去了車站替她送行。
She has gone to America.  => 她已經去了美國。


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## Lugubert

samanthalee said:


> 3. Using "guó le" - translates to "I *have* gone..", "I *have* eaten..", "I *have* sat..". In questions, "Have you...?"


The way I think that I've been taught, it would be "I have once (only) ...", ..., "Have you ever...?"


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## iyavor

Hello everyone

My question is about forming the past tense in Chinese. 
I am still at a rather elementary level.

I know that the particle "le" is used often, but how would I differentiate, say, between:

I AM happy

and 

I WAS happy

Any suggestions and explanations are always welcome! Xie Xie!

Ilan


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## nichec

iyavor said:


> Hello everyone
> 
> My question is about forming the past tense in Chinese.
> I am still at a rather elementary level.
> 
> I know that the particle "le" is used often, but how would I differentiate, say, between:
> 
> I AM happy
> 
> and
> 
> I WAS happy
> 
> Any suggestions and explanations are always welcome! Xie Xie!
> 
> Ilan


 
Humm....I'm sorry to tell you that there's no "past tense" in Chinese. Actually, there's no tense whatsoever in this language. Take your sentence for example, all you have to change/add is "the words of the time" (now, then)

I am happy--我*現在*很快樂 (now)

I was happy--我*過去*很快樂(then)


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## samanthalee

It is also possible for us to say "我*曾经*很快乐。" (I used to be happy.).

Usually we infer the time-frame from context without the need to use "过去" (in moments long passed) or "曾经" (used to be).


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## kareno999

iyavor said:


> Hello everyone
> 
> My question is about forming the past tense in Chinese.
> I am still at a rather elementary level.
> 
> I know that the particle "le" is used often, but how would I differentiate, say, between:
> 
> I AM happy
> 
> and
> 
> I WAS happy
> 
> Any suggestions and explanations are always welcome! Xie Xie!
> 
> Ilan


Well“我很高兴”can mean both "I AM happy" and "I WAS happy". One has to refer to the context to differentiate them.


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## Staarkali

了 is not a tense particle; as others here have explained, there is no real tense as conjugation in other languages.

Instead, 了 signifies that something has been done, so it isnt past, it can be used in future:
这个报告写好了,我就来看你.
As soon as I finish this report, I will come to see you.


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## Aoyama

> Well“我很高兴”can mean both "I AM happy" and "I WAS happy". One has to refer to the context to differentiate them.


对了, I agree.


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## Kwunlam

iyavor said:


> I AM happy
> 
> and
> 
> I WAS happy


 

*I am happy - 我很快樂
*
Actually it is interesting to note that "很" may mean "very" in english, as in 很多 = very much, but here, the Chinese people seldom say "我快樂" in this way to mean "I _am_ happy". (It is possible of course in some particular usages like "我快樂，你快樂" (I happy, you happy.) So I guess people would need to use other ways to mean *"I am very happy"*, e.g. *我非常快樂*. 

Without any adverb of time, I would normally assume that people are talking about their emotions at this present.


*I was happy* 

We may not say *我快樂*了*  to mean I was happy here. It sounds a bit uncommon or strange and it would *not* mean "I was happy". Since 了 is more commonly used with completed actions (吃飽了-to have eaten, 睡覺了 to have slept) or changes (改變了 - to have changed, 變苦了 - to have become bitter). But "to be happy" is just an expression of state of mind.


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## Kwunlam

iyavor said:


> Hello everyone
> 
> My question is about forming the past *tense* in Chinese.
> I am still at a rather elementary level.


 
There is no tense in Chinese in terms of "time" (past, present, future -- if you want to express time, you need to add adverb related to time), but there could be a "tense" in a loose sense in terms of "aspects" (whether actions are finished or not-finished).


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## samanthalee

Kwunlam said:


> We may not say *我快樂*了* to mean I was happy here. It sounds a bit uncommon or strange and it would *not* mean "I was happy".


 
Yes. *我快乐了*would mean "*(Something happened and it) made me happy*".


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## palomnik

Samantha, I always felt that *我快乐了 *implies "I'm happy now (whereas I wasn't happy before).  Would that be correct?


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## kenny4528

palomnik said:


> Samantha, I always felt that *我快乐了 *implies "I'm happy now (whereas I wasn't happy before). Would that be correct?


*我快乐了=It sounds strange, 了 is unnecessary.*
*you should say:*
*我現在很快樂*


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## iyavor

Hi everyone.

I see that the conclousion is obvious- no way to state past tense in Chinese, only completed actions. 

For some reason, my Western mind is stuck in that Indo-European mindset. Truth be told, it seems that much of the English language, and many others for that matter, have adopted conjugation for stylistic reasons only, for there really can be nothing pragmatic about it. 

I thank everyone for their responses, xie xie ni. Please, next time though, write in Pinyin along with the Hanzi. 

Ilan


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## Staarkali

iyavor said:


> I thank everyone for their responses, *xie xie ni.*


You should say 谢谢大家 (xiexie dajia) or also possibly 谢谢你们 (xiexie nimen) instead


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## Dragonseed

kenny4528 said:


> *我快乐了=It sounds strange, 了 is unnecessary.*
> *you should say:*
> *我現在很快樂*


 
"我快樂了" sounds even stranger due to the fact that being happy is not really an action, more like a state.
If ever used, the sentence "我快樂了" would probably mean something like "look, after all these efforts, I have experienced happiness", as someone reaches happiness as a goal... (Or I might use it to stop an argument with someone who tries too hard to help: "look, I am happy, you can stop now")
But language issues are complex enough on their own, let's not mix too much philosophy into them ! ^_^


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## vince

iyavor said:


> Hi everyone.
> 
> I see that the conclousion is obvious- no way to state past tense in Chinese, only completed actions.
> 
> For some reason, my Western mind is stuck in that Indo-European mindset. Truth be told, it seems that much of the English language, and many others for that matter, have adopted conjugation for stylistic reasons only, for there really can be nothing pragmatic about it.
> 
> I thank everyone for their responses, xie xie ni. Please, next time though, write in Pinyin along with the Hanzi.
> 
> Ilan




Aspect is important in Chinese languages, whereas tense is more important in languages like English and French. But even English and French have aspect (progressive in English, imperfect and perfect in French past tense), and most Slavic languages use a different verb for when an action is perfective in aspect or imperfective. It's a change of mindset.

If you plan on learning more than one Chinese language, understanding the concept of aspect is important because many Chinese languages differ in the number of aspects and how they are expressed.


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## vince

Dragonseed said:


> "我快樂了" sounds even stranger due to the fact that being happy is not really an action, more like a state.
> If ever used, the sentence "我快樂了" would probably mean something like "look, after all these efforts, I have experienced happiness", as someone reaches happiness as a goal... (Or I might use it to stop an argument with someone who tries too hard to help: "look, I am happy, you can stop now")
> But language issues are complex enough on their own, let's not mix too much philosophy into them ! ^_^



How would you translate "Je me suis rendu content" (I think this means "I got happy", my French is rusty after 5 years of disuse) into Mandarin / Written Chinese?

I have a theory that "le" corresponds to a compound tense in French (i.e. one with 'avoir' + past participle)

e.g.
这个报告写好了,我就来看你. would be "Dès que j'aurai fini le compte-rendu, je viendrai te voir" (I trust 报告 means "report")


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## Leopold

Well, I don't think Chinese doesn't have a way to express the past tense. It's just that there are different ways to achieve this, and they don't work exactly the same way as in English.

The particle *过* is used exclusively for actions taking place in the past. However, it also means that there was an *experience*.

For example:

我学习了汉语。I studied it and finished studying and now I still know Chinese.
我学习过汉语。I have the experience of studying Chinese, but maybe now I can't speak the language.


Some other structures also convey a past meaning, like 是。。。的:

我朋友的生日晚会是星期六的。 (My friend's party was on Saturday.)


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## kenny4528

Leopold said:


> 我朋友的生日晚会是星期六的。 (My friend's party was on Saturday.)


 
Hi,

It sounds unnatural, you should say: 我朋友的生日晚会在星期六的。It sounds natural.


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## Dragonseed

vince said:


> How would you translate "Je me suis rendu content" (I think this means "I got happy", my French is rusty after 5 years of disuse) into Mandarin / Written Chinese?
> 
> I have a theory that "le" corresponds to a compound tense in French (i.e. one with 'avoir' + past participle)
> 
> e.g.
> 这个报告写好了,我就来看你. would be "Dès que j'aurai fini le compte-rendu, je viendrai te voir" (I trust 报告 means "report")


 
Hi Vince!
(I am Vincent too, btw)

I would probably use something like "那時候我(就)覺得快樂" for "j'etais content". Contextual, not grammatical. 

Your theory about compound tense relating to 了 sounds about right, at least with the example you give, but I don't believe there is a 100% possible correspondance.
I would say: let the Chinese flow from your lips, it does not go too well with too much thinking!  ^_^


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## Kwunlam

Leopold said:


> Some other structures also convey a past meaning, like 是。。。的:
> 
> 我朋友的生日晚会是星期六的。 (My friend's party was on Saturday.)


 
I do not think so. 

"是...的" is an emphatic expression/assertion of a fact. 


"我朋友的生日晚会在星期六" OK
"我朋友的生日晚会是在星期六的" <-- emphasising "在星期六". Perhaps somebody got it wrong, and I really wish to make it correct with more emphasis.


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## Leopold

I didn't know you could use 在 for time expressions like that, interesting. 

However, as far as I know, this structure should convey past tense. Could the sentence  "我朋友的生日晚会是在星期六的" refer to next Saturday?

Thanks.


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## kenny4528

Kwunlam said:


> I do not think so.
> 
> "是...的" is an emphatic expression/assertion of a fact.
> 
> 
> "我朋友的生日晚会在星期六" OK
> "我朋友的生日晚会是在星期六的" <-- emphasising "在星期六". Perhaps somebody got it wrong, and I really wish to make it correct with more emphasis.


Hi,
I think it may be a regional difference; however, if you want to put more emphasis into this sentence, at least dropped the _*的*_ at the end:
我朋友的生日晚会是在星期六的
No one I know would add the_ *的*_ at the end; it sounds jarring.


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## Kwunlam

Leopold said:


> I didn't know you could use 在 for time expressions like that, interesting.
> 
> However, as far as I know, this structure should convey past tense. Could the sentence "我朋友的生日晚会是在星期六的" refer to next Saturday?
> 
> Thanks.


 
It could be this saturday or next saturday as well, not necessarily the past, so long as it is certain and can be talked of certainly.


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## Kwunlam

kenny4528 said:


> Hi,
> I think it may be a regional difference; however, if you want to put more emphasis into this sentence, at least dropped the _*的*_ at the end:
> 我朋友的生日晚会是在星期六的
> No one I know would add the_ *的*_ at the end; it sounds jarring.


 
We can find the structure "是...的" in a Chinese grammar book published by 三聯書店 (Joint Publishing).  

And I would regard that the dropping of 的 in legitimate, but mainly in normal conversations. In our oral speech, dropping of some words is permissible. So I would regard that the difference is not due to regional practice, but due to various levels or registers of language use (conversational vs formal/academic).


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## RoryJMcEwan

I read this on Wikipedia, about the past tense in Chinese Mandarin and I just want to check if I understand it properly.

This is what it says:
_The past_ _The simplest way of expressing past tense is to use adverbs such as "yesterday." For example: "zuótiān wǒ chī jī" (昨天我吃鸡, literally: yesterday I eat chicken) is equal to saying "Yesterday I ate chicken". Another way of expressing past tense is to use the aspect particles "guò" (过) or "le" (了), which cannot stand by themselves but can express completed actions when placed after verbs. The distinction between these and other particles can be difficult for learners to grasp. Past tense in Chinese can also be emphasized by surrounding the verb and direct object with the words "shì"-"de" (是-的). Here the time is sufficient to express the past tense but the shi...de pattern emphasizes for purpose. For example "wǒ shì zuótiān chī jī de" (我是昨天吃鸡的). This phrasing emphasizes the time in which the action took place more than the action itself._

Am I right thinking that if you're talking about a specific time then you can use words like 'yesterday' or 'last-week' or 'at the week-end'. Then if you're not talking about a specific date then you can use either 'guò' or 'le' after a verb or put 'shì' in front of the subject and 'de' behind the object; (and it doesn't really matter which one you use). 

Thanks for reading. Please let me know if I have a proper understanding on this.


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## xiaolijie

Ok, since you're an English speaker, it's natural to try to figure out how tenses are encoded in Chinese but the fact is, as with many other languages, Chinese does not indicate tenses. "Yesterday" in both English and Chinese are there for some purposes but is not a device for indicate tense. The same can be said of "guò" (过), "le" (了), "shi...de"... They just happen to work around the scene of murder but they don't commit murders . It's not a simple matter to try to explain why Chinese don't need devices for indicate tenses, except to say that Chinese speakers may not feel it's necessary, just like they don't feel the need to vary the verb (form) to indicate whether it's plural or singular; whether it is in 1st, 2nd or 3rd person. 

It may be a bit beyond what you need now but as they're already mentioned, I should say that "guò" (过) and "le" (了) are devices for indicating aspect (whether something has or has not been done, completed), whereas "shi...de" is used to enclosed the focus of the information you're conveying, usually about some past event. As I said above, these things are working in the vicinity of the tenses and therefore often wrongly perceived as tense markers.


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## OneStroke

xiaolijie said:


> Ok, since you're an English speaker, it's natural to try to figure out how tenses are encoded in Chinese but the fact is, as with many other languages, Chinese does not indicate tenses. "Yesterday" in both English and Chinese are there for some purposes but is not a device for indicate tense. The same can be said of "guò" (过), "le" (了), "shi...de"... They just happen to work around the scene of murder but they don't commit murders . It's not a simple matter to try to explain why Chinese don't need devices for indicate tenses, except to say that Chinese speakers may not feel it's necessary, just like they don't feel the need to vary the verb (form) to indicate whether it's plural or singular; whether it is in 1st, 2nd or 3rd person.
> 
> It may be a bit beyond what you need now but as they're already mentioned, I should say that "guò" (过) and "le" (了) are devices for indicating aspect (whether something has or has not been done, completed), whereas "shi...de" is used to enclosed the focus of the information you're conveying, usually about some past event. As I said above, these things are working in the vicinity of the tenses and therefore often wrongly perceived as tense markers.



I'd like to add that 过 and 了 are quite similar to the progressive and perfect auxiliaries in English, which also indicate aspect. The only difference seems to lie in the part of speech.

吃*过*早饭后，我到*了*博物馆逛逛。
After *having *eaten breakfast, I went (*have *gone) to the museum. (Compare French Je *suis *allée au musée 'I went to the museum', where *suis *is somewhat equivalent to the '*have*' in '*have *gone'.)


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## zhg

Yes I agree with you on most of your understanding except for the shi...de part .In my opinion,de should be put in front of the object rather than behind
我是昨天吃的鸡（腿 or 翅）(Since I doubt one can eat an entire chiken at one time I guess it's more reasonable to say I ate chinken wings yesterday.)


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## xiaolijie

zhg said:


> Yes I agree with you on most of your understanding except for the shi...de part .In my opinion,de should be put in front of the object rather than behind
> 我是昨天吃的鸡（腿 or 翅）(Since I doubt one can eat an entire chiken at one time I guess it's more reasonable to say I ate chinken wings yesterday.)



You're correct to point out this detail, zhg, if the thread is about the "shi...de" structure.
I also hope that others won't argue with you on the detail you pointed out, unless they open a new, separate thread for it.


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