Chinese Learning Tip - The Usage of 了

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Katrina Lee

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SMART Mandarin

 

 

(Traditional Chinese)

 

As we all know that 了(le)is one of the most important and also one of the most troublesome words in Chinese. And in our learning tips today, we’re talking about of the most important usages of 了(le).

 

Please see the following examples

 

1.      我(wǒ )昨(zuó )天(tiān )上(shàng )了(le )三(sān )個(ge )小(xiǎo )時(shí )的(de )中(zhōng )文(wén )課(kè )。

2.      我(wǒ )已(yǐ )經(jing )上(shàng )了(le )三(sān )個(ge )小(xiǎo )時(shí )的(de) 中(zhong1 )文(wén )課(kè )了(le )。

Can you tell the differences between the two sentences above?

 

Let’s take a look at the first sentence

我(wǒ )昨(zuó )天(tiān )上(shàng )了(le )三(sān )個(ge )小(xiǎo )時(shí )的(de )中(zhōng )文(wén )課(kè )。

(Yesterday I had three hours of Chinese lesson.)

 

昨(zuó )天(tiān ) yesterday shows that this sentence is a past tense. And when making a past tense sentence, we put 了 after the verb. Which is 上 in the sentence above.

In a past tense Chinese sentence, we put only one 了 after the verb of the sentence.

 

The second sentence

我(wǒ )已(yǐ )經(jing )上(shàng )了(le )三(sān )個(ge )小(xiǎo )時(shí )的(de )中(zhong1 )文(wén )課(kè )了(le )。

(I’ve been having Chinese lesson for three hours.)

From the sentence above, we don’t see any “past tense” word in it.

 

If you would like to say “ I’ve been doing something for a period of time.”

You need two 了. In your sentence.

First 了 place after the verb : 我(wǒ )已(yǐ )經(jīng ) 上(shàng ) 了(le )..

                                                               (verb + 了)

The second 了 is placed at the end of your sentence.

我(wǒ )已(yǐ )經(jing )上(shàng )了(le )三(sān )個(ge )小(xiǎo )時(shí )的(de )中(zhong1 )文(wén )課(kè )了(le )。