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What is the usual way to say something along the lines of "when I was young, petrol was cheap" or "when I was a kid, my family lived in Mexico".

2 Answers 2

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You can say:

  • 当我年轻的时候,...
  • 我年轻的时候,...
  • 年轻的时候,...
  • 年轻时,...

In these cases, you are talking about the time when you were a young man (note: not a kid nor a teenager). Perhaps you are now in your 40s/50s/60s etc, and you are talking about your 20s/30s.

You could also say:

  • 当我年幼的时候,...
  • 当我还小的时候,...
  • 我年幼的时候,...
  • 我还小的时候,...
  • 我小时候,...
  • 小时候,...

In these cases, you are talking about the time when you were a kid or teenager.

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  • 2
    In spoken Chinese, just say 我小时候.
    – Dante WWWW
    Feb 14, 2012 at 3:04
  • Can one use 年幼?
    – tao
    Aug 10, 2013 at 5:49
  • not sure what the deal is with all the pedanticisms... 小时候 will work just fine.
    – Mou某
    Apr 7, 2014 at 10:13
  • @tao ,年幼 is more of written Chinese.
    – zsf222
    Aug 26, 2014 at 13:56
2

I'm not a native speaker but I have seen it as:

我小时候...

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  • 我小时候 means you were younger that 10 years old, more or less.
    – http8086
    Aug 21, 2014 at 14:08

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