I would like to point out a mistake. There is a gramatical difference with the occurrence of the character "le" (了). It explicitly changes the tense of the sentence to past tense, whereas the sentences without "le" are more like simple present tense.
"垃圾扔哪去了?" means "Where was the garbage thrown?" or "Where did you throw the garbage?"
But "垃圾扔到哪里去?" means "Where to throw the garbage?"
So, if somebody threw your garbage but you want to retrieve something important that you misplaced in it, use the former one. If you are new to a place and have no idea where to threw garbage, use the latter one.
Posted on: Regional Accents Part II
May 26, 2008 at 11:58 AMI would like to point out a mistake. There is a gramatical difference with the occurrence of the character "le" (了). It explicitly changes the tense of the sentence to past tense, whereas the sentences without "le" are more like simple present tense. "垃圾扔哪去了?" means "Where was the garbage thrown?" or "Where did you throw the garbage?" But "垃圾扔到哪里去?" means "Where to throw the garbage?" So, if somebody threw your garbage but you want to retrieve something important that you misplaced in it, use the former one. If you are new to a place and have no idea where to threw garbage, use the latter one.