Tense
go_manly
August 29, 2010, 04:40 AM posted in Grammar QuestionsI know Mandarin doesn't use tense. Nevertheless, is someone able to render the following English tenses in Mandarin? I've included the easy examples which I already understand in order to make this complete. Also, I've added words in brackets to make sense of some of the tenses.
1. I am waiting (for you).
2. I waited (for you).
3. I have waited (for you).
4. (By the time you arrived) I had waited (for you for 2 hours).
5. I have been waiting (for you).
6. I will wait (for you).
7. I will be waiting (for you).
8. (If you are late tomorrow) I will have waited (for you too many times).
9. (By the time you get here) I will have been waiting (for you for 3 hours)
Have I missed any?
Perhaps I'm dense, but don't sit on the fence, help me make sense of this wretched tense.
bababardwan
噢，这个悬疑。。等待为答案。 。。。 。
bababardwan
August 29, 2010, 05:06 AMOk, well firstly I suspect Chinese isn't going to have that many ways of expressing tense. I think there is going to be a fair bit of overlap and reliance on context.
1. 我等着
2. 我等了
3. same as above, or something else to emphasise in place of the "have" ..maybe:
我已经等了你
bababardwan
August 29, 2010, 05:13 AM4. same as 3 maybe
5. 我一直在等待
6. 我将等...or maybe that should be 我会等
7.我会在等着你
8 我会已经等待了
9. 我会已经等着
ok, they're probably all wrong. But an interesting exercise and starting point for when corrections come along.
bodawei
August 29, 2010, 01:48 PM为了回答你等了很久吗？ (Have you been waiting long for an answer?) Sorry - just my little joke. Here's a few ideas:
1. 我现在等你 (I am waiting for you)
2, 3 & 5. 我等了.. (I waited for you/have waited for you/have been waiting for you)
4. 你倒了以后我等了（两个小时） (By the time you arrived I had waited for a couple of hours)
6 & 7. 我要等到 (I will wait/will be waiting)
I have put some of these together because I can't really see the difference.
Others:
我等着走呢 (I am waiting to go)
你得等着 (You'll have to wait)
ouyangjun116
August 29, 2010, 02:41 PM我也试试一下：
1。我在等你
2, 3。我等你来这儿
4。我等了你两个小时
5。我一直在等你
6, 7。我等你 （或者 － 我会等你）
8。我已经等了你太多次。
9。我已经等了你三个小时
我不太清楚那些句子都对了。
bababardwan
August 29, 2010, 05:04 AM..hehe "dense,fence,sense,tense"...hence je pense whence comes one [thou] with such rhyming competense will no doubt without hesitance make sense of the tense predicamence [for this last I have no defence].