Does Chinese Language Have "Past Tense"?
Does this bother you when you learn Chinese?
We have lots of questions from our students asking about the "past tense" in Chinese.
我们昨天学习了第二课。
wǒmen zuótiān xuéxí le dì èr kè。
We learnt Lesson2 yesterday.
Now that "了" isn't an almighty tool for the Past Tense in Chinese, what else can we use for expressing the past?
We actually often apply the two other structures. You need to pay special attention to these two structures as English speakers don't differentiate these expressions in their own language.
2️⃣是 (shì)……的 (de)
You might have noticed that Chinese people say "的(de)" a lot when they talk, many times it is the "的(de)" from this structure above.
People use "了" to tell others that something happened. However, when they continue to talk about the details of this past thing such as when it happened, where it happened, how it happened, who did it, they will switch to "是 (shì)……的 (de)". E.g.:
我是在学校认识中国朋友的。
Wǒ shì zài xuéxiào rènshi Zhōngguó péngyou de。
I got to know my Chinese friend in school.
我是去年认识中国朋友的。
Wǒ shì qù nián rènshi zhōngguó péngyou de。
I got to know my Chinese friend last year.
我是坐地铁来学校的。
Wǒ shì zuò dìtiě lái xuéxiào de。
I came to school by metro.
今天的菜是妈妈做的。
Jīntiān de cài shì māma zuò de。
Mom made today's meal.
In spoken Chinese, people often omit "是", only leaving "的" at the end of the sentence. That's why you can hear a lot of "的" when people talk about the past. E.g.:
我坐地铁来的。
Wǒ zuò dìtiě lái de。
Yes! They are talking about the details!
3️⃣The third structure Chinese people use to describe the past is the particle "过(guò)".
Compared with the previous two, V+过 (guò) emphasizes the experience from the past and influence on the current topic. For example:
我以前在上海工作过，所以我看得懂中文。
我吃过饺子，我很喜欢。
Wǒ chī guò jiǎozi, wǒ hěn xǐhuān。
I've eaten dumplings, and I really like them.
That's all for today! Did you get it? Hoover up this grammar knowledge with us and I'm sure you will talk about your "the past" more accurately! Feel free to leave any question below in the comment
→ See another thing you must know about "了"
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