Telling Time Without Tenses

Chinese verbs never change their form. 吃 (eat) is 吃 whether you ate yesterday, eat today, or will eat tomorrow. So how does Chinese show time? In two ways. Time words like 昨天 (yesterday) and 明天 (tomorrow) tell you when. And small words called aspect markers tell you the state of the action: whether it is finished, tried before, happening now, or still going on.

First, the easy half. To say when something happens, just add a time word and leave the verb alone.

我昨天去公园。 Wǒ zuótiān qù gōngyuán. (I went to the park yesterday.)

我明天去公园。 Wǒ míngtiān qù gōngyuán. (I will go to the park tomorrow.)

Same verb, 去. The time word does all the work. Now for the four markers that show the state of an action.

了: finished, or changed

了 (le) is the most common and the most misunderstood marker. It has two close jobs.

First, it marks a completed action. The action is done.

我喝了一杯茶。 Wǒ hē le yì bēi chá. (I drank a cup of tea.)

Second, at the end of a sentence, it marks a change, a new situation that wasn't true before.

天黑了。 Tiān hēi le. (It's gotten dark. / It's dark now.)

我会游泳了。 Wǒ huì yóuyǒng le. (I can swim now.)

The trap: 了 is not a past tense. It marks completion or change, which often lands in the past but not always. A past habit takes no 了:

我以前每天跑步。 Wǒ yǐqián měitiān pǎobù. (I used to run every day.)

And a finished action can sit in the future:

明天下了课我去找你。 Míngtiān xià le kè wǒ qù zhǎo nǐ. (Tomorrow after class I'll come find you.)

So think "finished or changed," not "past."

过: done it before

过 (guo) marks experience. It says the action has happened at least once, that you have done it before.

我去过日本。 Wǒ qù guo Rìběn. (I have been to Japan.)

你吃过北京烤鸭吗？ Nǐ chī guo Běijīng kǎoyā ma? (Have you ever eaten Beijing duck?)

Compare it with 了:

他去了美国。 Tā qù le Měiguó. (He went to the US.) The trip happened, and he may still be there.

他去过美国。 Tā qù guo Měiguó. (He has been to the US.) He has the experience, and he is back.

了 is about a finished action; 过 is about a life experience.

在: happening right now

To show an action in progress at this moment, put 在 (zài) before the verb.

他在吃饭。 Tā zài chīfàn. (He is eating.)

我在看书。 Wǒ zài kàn shū. (I am reading.)

This is the closest thing to the English "is doing." It describes an action unfolding right now.

着: a state that stays

着 (zhe) marks a state that continues. Where 在 is a moving action, 着 is something holding still.

门开着。 Mén kāi zhe. (The door is open.)

她穿着一件红衣服。 Tā chuān zhe yí jiàn hóng yīfu. (She is wearing a red dress.)

The door isn't opening; it sits open. She isn't putting the dress on; she already has it on. 着 is the lingering result, the state that lasts.

Putting it together

Chinese doesn't fold time into the verb. It keeps the verb still and adds two kinds of information:

• A time word for when: 昨天, 现在, 明天.
• An aspect marker for the state of the action:
  • 了 finished, or a new situation
  • 过 done before, an experience
  • 在 happening right now
  • 着 a state that continues

Learn to read these four small words, and you will know not just what happened, but how Chinese sees it: done, tried, in motion, or holding still.