What you will be able to do
- Use 了 after a verb for a completed event, and give the object the quantity it needs.
- Tell verb-final 了 from sentence-final 了, which announces a change of situation.
- Use 过 for experience, and keep it under negation where 了 would vanish.
- Negate both with 没 rather than 不, and say why 不 is the wrong tool.
Chinese words in this text can be activated to show a dictionary gloss.
and : two different pasts
Mandarin verbs do not change for tense. is whether you ate yesterday or will eat tomorrow, and the time is carried by a word like or sitting in front of the verb. What the language does mark is the kind of event: says an event was completed, says it belongs to your experience.
after the verb: this event finished
- 。 Wǒ chī le liǎng wǎn fàn. — I ate two bowls of rice.
- 。 Tā mǎi le yí jiàn yīfu.
- 。 Wǒmen kàn le nàge diànyǐng.
Notice that every object here is measured or pointed at: , , . A bare object leaves the sentence hanging. said on its own sounds like the first half of something, and it wants either a quantity or a following clause:
- 。 Wǒ chī le fàn jiù qù. — I will go as soon as I have eaten.
at the end: something has changed
The same character at the end of a sentence says that a new situation has come about. This is not the same , and it is not about completion at all.
- 。 Xià yǔ le. — It has started raining.
- 。 Tā huì shuō Hànyǔ le. — He can speak Chinese now, which he could not before.
- 。 Wǒ bú qù le. — I am not going after all.
- 。 Wǒ chī fàn le. — I have eaten. (A state of affairs, not a report of the meal.)
This is perfectly at home with a negative and with the present, which the completion is not.
after the verb: at least once in your life
- 。 Wǒ qù guo Zhōngguó. — I have been to China.
- ？ Nǐ chī guo Běijīng kǎoyā ma?
- 。 Tā xué guo Hànyǔ. — He studied Chinese at some point.
is unstressed and neutral in tone: guo, not guò. What it says is that the thing is on your record. Whether it happened once or twenty times, and when, is not the point.
The contrast, side by side
- 。 — I went to Beijing. A particular trip; it happened and it is over.
- 。 — I have been to Beijing. Some time, no trip in mind, and often the implication so I know what it is like.
Ask yourself which question you are answering. What did you do? takes . Have you ever…? takes .
Negation splits them cleanly
Both are negated with méi, never with . denies a habit, a preference or a plan — , I do not eat meat. denies that something happened.
- disappears under negation: 。 Wǒ méi chī fàn. Never .
- survives: 。 Wǒ méi qù guo Zhōngguó. — I have never been to China.
That asymmetry is the most reliable test in the whole lesson. If the negative keeps , the sentence was about experience; if the marker vanishes, it was about completion.
Questions
- ？ Nǐ chī le ma? — Have you eaten?
- ？ Nǐ chī guo Rìběn cài ma?
- ？ Nǐ qù méi qù guo? — the verb-not-verb form, with in the middle.
The answer to a question is or ; the answer to a question is or . Repeating the verb with or without the marker is more natural than saying yes or no, which Mandarin does not really have.
How to work through it
Not a tense, a kind of eventread
Read the whole lesson once, then look back at 我去了北京 and 我去过北京 and say what question each of them answers. If you can do that, the rest is drilling.
Give the object a quantitysentence
Repair these by adding a measure or a following clause: 我买了衣服 / 他喝了咖啡 / 我们看了电影. Then say each one again with 过 instead and notice that the quantity is no longer needed.
Finished, or changedquiz
Ten items, each with a 了 somewhere in it. Decide whether the 了 sits after the verb and reports a completed event, or sits at the end and reports a change of situation. Two of the ten contain both.
What survives the negativequiz
Twelve items. Six negate a sentence and ask what happens to the marker; six choose between 不 and 没. The rule to lean on: 不 refuses, 没 reports that it did not happen.
Yesterday, and everspeaking
Two minutes, two halves. First tell a partner four things you did yesterday, each with a measured object and 了. Then answer four 你…过吗？ questions about your life, two of them in the negative so that 没…过 gets its turn.