how do i make a tense in chinese?

israelyplane
April 15, 2010, 10:38 PM posted in General Discussion

is there a specific word i should add before the verb to make it past, future, or present, or conditional, or subjunctive?

like, wo xue zhongwen, i learn chinese. what should i say to make it past, learned, and future, will learn

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go_manly
April 15, 2010, 10:52 PM

Wǒ xué le Zhōngwén. - I studied Chinese.

Wǒ xuéguo Zhōngwén. - I have studied Chinese.

Wǒ zài xué Zhōngwén. - I am studying Chinese (right now)

Wǒ yào xué Zhōngwén. - I will study Chinese.

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xiao_liang
April 16, 2010, 07:34 AM

What's the usage of 将 (jiāng) ?

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go_manly

I know it means 'will', but I'm not sure how it is used in comparison with yào. I also will be interested in getting an answer.

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xiao_liang

Fingers crossed someone from cpod can find this in the new conversation system then! :-)

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connie

将 (jiāng) can be used in the future tense, but it's much more formal than 要(yào).

eg,

上海世博会将于2010年5月1号开幕。

Shànghǎi Shìbóhuì jiāng yú èrlíngyīlíng nián wǔ yuè yī hào kāimù.

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go_manly

Thanks Connie. So would 将 be used by newsreaders?

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suansuanru

yes.

and sometimes we can find the sentence below in the news.

"XX总统XX即将访华"

"要"always means"want". "Wǒ yào xué Zhōngwén can also be "I want to learn chinese"which does not necessarily mean "you will learn chinese in the futrue."

It is really hard to learn the tense of chinese since the language doesn't rely on the tense to imply the time.

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go_manly
April 16, 2010, 07:45 AM

I know it means 'will', but I'm not sure how it is used in comparison with yào. I also will be interested in getting an answer.

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xiao_liang
April 16, 2010, 07:47 AM

Fingers crossed someone from cpod can find this in the new conversation system then! :-)

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connie
April 16, 2010, 08:02 AM

将 (jiāng) can be used in the future tense, but it's much more formal than 要(yào).

eg,

上海世博会将于2010年5月1号开幕。

Shànghǎi Shìbóhuì jiāng yú èrlíngyīlíng nián wǔ yuè yī hào kāimù.

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wenshaTim
April 23, 2010, 10:52 AM

suansuanru: I think you mean "sometimes means 'want'" not "always"

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suansuanru

hi,thanks.

you are right.要has many kinds of meanings.

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suansuanru
April 24, 2010, 03:38 PM

hi,thanks.

you are right.要has many kinds of meanings.