10
votes
Accepted
How do you specify past tense for 是?
You have to remember, unlike in English, we do not have past tense for verbs in Chinese grammar. Both "is" and "was" is written as "是" in Chinese.
"是" in "她是好老师" could be "is" or "was". We really don'...
- 76k
7
votes
Accepted
Using this Cantonese particle to indicate past tense
晒 as a verb particle here indicate - 'All; completely'
Example: 走晒 (all left); 死晒 (all dead; completely dead); 冇晒 (all gone)
填好晒 = finished filling it all
The phrase 貼好 (finished sticking on) ...
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7
votes
Using this Cantonese particle to indicate past tense
The verbal aspect markers V+咗 and V+好, and the verb complement V+嗮, are similar but not identical.
V+咗 is perfective. The activity is completed but its result still applies to the present situation. (...
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6
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How exactly do time and "tense" work in Mandarin REALLY?
If the form 我看了一本书 is correct then what role is 了 playing here and why does it sound to me like past tense with a not-a-tense-marker indicating tense?
'了' in "我看了一本书" is a [aspect marker] ...
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5
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If I was fat, and now I'm not, which is better: 我长胖 or 我长胖了 or 我长了胖 or 我长了胖了?
Neither.
If you used to be x and you're not any more you'd just use a construct like:
以前很x
like:
(我)以前很胖
Of course, 很 doesn't necessarily mean really or very, but if you want to change it to ...
Mou某♦
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5
votes
Using this Cantonese particle to indicate past tense
晒 and 好 are verb complements in the same category as 完，飽，實，斷，乾净，... etc.
A verb complement serves to indicate a distinctive notional value of a process P (action or event associated to the verb). For ...
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4
votes
How do you specify past tense for 是?
This is a frequent type of question, perhaps someone can ask a more general question that would allow a more generally useful answer. As a step toward that, I'll try to raise a couple of general ...
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4
votes
How can both 过 (past actions) and 会 (future actions) turn up in 下过雨以后，空气会好很多?
I learn that "过" is used for past actions, "会" = "will" (for future actions). So, can both 过 and 会 turn up in this sentence?
Your understandings of both characters are correct. But here in this ...
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4
votes
Why is 我的朋友今年住在美国 translated to both "my friend [is living in / lived in] America this year"?
Chinese language doesn't have tense. To indicate event happened in the past, you need to add time reference in the context or verb particle that indicate past verb
Example:
我的朋友今年在美国(住过) = My friend ...
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4
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Accepted
Why is 我的朋友今年住在美国 translated to both "my friend [is living in / lived in] America this year"?
My friend is living in America this year.
我朋友今年住在美国。
My friend lived in America for a while this year.
我朋友今年在美国住了一段时间。
Does 'for a while' count as extra info??
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3
votes
Accepted
了 vs 是...的 as "factuality markers"
(今天早上) (打网球)[了]
"打网球" is the fact; "今天早上" is the relative phrase that indicate what time it happened. Remove the relative phrase "今天早上" and write "我们打网球了", the ...
- 76k
3
votes
What is the difference between 没有+V. and 没+V.?
[沒+ X(v)] is the negative form of [有+ X(v)] (replace 有 with 沒)
Example:
[沒殺人] (did not kill someone)
[有殺人]( have killed someone / did kill someone)
*Replace 有 with 沒
[沒有+ X(v)] is also the ...
- 76k
3
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How exactly do time and "tense" work in Mandarin REALLY?
There's several explanations already, but IMO they are just expanding on your question and not really fixing it, the straight up answer and the most fluent way is this.
Q: 你怎么知道的？(How do you know ...
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3
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How can both 过 (past actions) and 会 (future actions) turn up in 下过雨以后，空气会好很多?
以后 means "after". 过 is used for done actions. So the part before comma means: "After the rain has finished falling" (or, more in English: "After the rain").
The part after comma means "the air will ...
- 850
3
votes
Accepted
How can both 过 (past actions) and 会 (future actions) turn up in 下过雨以后，空气会好很多?
Question: When is the air fresher/cleaner?
下过雨以后，
After the rain
空气会好很多。
the air is/will be much better
1 is time, 2 is a statement
You could translate thus:
下过雨以后， After the rain has fallen,
...
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2
votes
How do you specify past tense for 是?
'She was a good teacher' 她曾经是位好老师
曾经 puts this firmly in the past.
A lot of the time you can use 了 or 过 to indicate the past. Here is an explanation thereof from another forum. I thought it sums up ...
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How do you specify past tense for 是?
As others mentioned, The paste tense for "是" is usually "曾经" or "过去". But here might be a little different. "She was a good teacher" implies that she has died now. So it might be more clear to say "...
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What is the difference between 没有+V. and 没+V.?
It seems to me 沒有 is more formal, and 沒 is ellipsis form. I don't think they exhibit difference in usage, though. Note that 沒有 may either be "do not have/possess" (something) or "not" (adverb), ...
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How exactly do time and "tense" work in Mandarin REALLY?
There is no "classical sence" of time in Chinese. Some scholars say that chinese is a "modal language" and not the "tense language", which means that "time" is indicated by:
By words like: "today, ...
- 2,073
2
votes
Accepted
How to say "I thought you are..." to a response?
It is "我还以为你是学生"
认为 (consider; think) can be in any tense
but 以为 already mean "(previously) thought"
还 is a common adverb with many meanings. In this case, it means 'even'
还以为 = '(even) thought'...
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2
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If I was fat, and now I'm not, which is better: 我长胖 or 我长胖了 or 我长了胖 or 我长了胖了?
Suppose?? All theoretical of course.
我以前很胖，现在不胖了！真的哦！
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2
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If I was fat, and now I'm not, which is better: 我长胖 or 我长胖了 or 我长了胖 or 我长了胖了?
Suppose in the past I was fat, and now I'm no longer fat.
You should say 我瘦下来了, 我变瘦了 or 我瘦了 in this case.
我胖了, 我变胖了 or 我长胖了 means I'm getting fat.
These are incorrect:
我长胖
我长了胖
我长了胖了
- 24k
2
votes
Accepted
If I was fat, and now I'm not, which is better: 我长胖 or 我长胖了 or 我长了胖 or 我长了胖了?
我长胖了=I am putting on weight.
The other 3 versions are incorrect.
You should reverse it to express your purpose:
我（已经）不胖了。
我曾经很胖（但现在瘦下来了）。
- 3,101
2
votes
了 vs 是...的 as "factuality markers"
I feel that 是……的 is not an independent structure. I prefer to parse it as 是 （……的）. 的 is actually a marker of the descriptive chunk before it, transforming it to （I am not sure of that jargon, but ...
- 3,101
2
votes
了 vs 是...的 as "factuality markers"
I'd say the two constructions are used in different contexts. See below example:
A: 你们什么时候打网球的？
B: 我们是今天早上打网球的
A: 你们今天早上做什么了？
B: 我们今天早上打网球了
I'm not quite behind the idea that 了 is '...
- 24k
2
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Is there any difference between 想, 觉得 and 以为?
以为 is mostly used for:
wrongly thought/believed
like: 我以为你死了！ I thought you were dead!
觉得 is closer to:
feel/think (of an opinion)
like: 你这样说，我觉得非常不靠谱 What you said is totally unreasonable.
想 ...
Mou某♦
- 35.9k
2
votes
Accepted
Is there any difference between 想, 觉得 and 以为?
[我想 + statement] the statement is what I think is true
[我觉得 + statement] the statement is what I feel is true
[我以为 + statement] the statement is what I thought was true
[我認为 + statement] the ...
- 76k
2
votes
What is the etymology of Chinese tense words?
According to Wikipedia, the first Chinese's grammar《馬氏文通》is written by 馬建忠 in 1898, meaning that most likely, there was no use at all of 過去式、現在式 and 未來式 before that. Now, if we investigate a bit by ...
- 781
2
votes
How to say I studied for 3 months (not continuous)
"下个暑假我学了三个月汉语" has two problems.
First, "下个暑假" is next summer, not last. If it's next summer, "了" , as a resultative verb suffix, should not be there, since the action ...
- 6,026
2
votes
Use of 不 for negation in the 不曾...過 pattern
从未孤单过
未曾孤单过
从未曾孤单过
从未曾经孤单过
没有孤单过
从没有孤单过
没孤单过
从没孤单过
曾经孤单过
All the above are possible.
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