Comments on: Chinese Mandarin Past Tense http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/chinese-mandarin-past-tense General Advice and Tips on Mandarin Chinese Learning Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:52:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: admin http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/chinese-mandarin-past-tense/comment-page-1#comment-333 admin Tue, 21 Dec 2010 10:24:24 +0000 http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/?p=76#comment-333 Hi thanks for the input. Yes I agree that proper mandarin should include the "le" but in spoken mandarin I notice that it is optional. However your "sentence final 了 and verb final 了 are different. the latter marks Current Relevant State and the former marks verb completion" - please explain this in a little more detail because in my experience there is little or no difference. Can you give examples using both languages ? Thanks Hi thanks for the input. Yes I agree that proper mandarin should include the “le” but in spoken mandarin I notice that it is optional.

However your “sentence final 了 and verb final 了 are different. the latter marks Current Relevant State and the former marks verb completion” – please explain this in a little more detail because in my experience there is little or no difference. Can you give examples using both languages ?

Thanks

]]> By: Da Mao Houzi http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/chinese-mandarin-past-tense/comment-page-1#comment-331 Da Mao Houzi Tue, 21 Dec 2010 05:54:07 +0000 http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/?p=76#comment-331 A lot of mistakes above, sentence final 了 and verb final 了 are different. the latter marks Current Relevant State and the former marks verb completion. These are different. also, this is not correct; "If you are talking about yesterday the listener already knows you are talking about the past and therefore it isn’t really necessary to ensure every verb has a “le” after it or whatever." Proper Mandarin grammar always marks verb completion irrespective of temporal adverbials. A lot of mistakes above, sentence final 了 and verb final 了 are different. the latter marks Current Relevant State and the former marks verb completion. These are different.

also, this is not correct;

“If you are talking about yesterday the listener already knows you are talking about the past and therefore it isn’t really necessary to ensure every verb has a “le” after it or whatever.”

Proper Mandarin grammar always marks verb completion irrespective of temporal adverbials.

]]> By: Tim http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/chinese-mandarin-past-tense/comment-page-1#comment-315 Tim Sun, 22 Aug 2010 06:12:34 +0000 http://howtolearnchineseonline.com/?p=76#comment-315 Hi, great explanation but I just wanted to "tweak" something you said. The examples you gave "have played before, have you ever eaten fish, etc" are all examples of present perfect. The auxiliary "have" gives the tense and so "have/has" is the present perfect, while "had" as in had eaten= past perfect. Hi, great explanation but I just wanted to “tweak” something you said. The examples you gave “have played before, have you ever eaten fish, etc” are all examples of present perfect. The auxiliary “have” gives the tense and so “have/has” is the present perfect, while “had” as in had eaten= past perfect.

]]>