Monday, February 9, 2015

The Placement of Time Phrases

Are you wondering how to put time words in a sentence? The placement of time phrases in Chinese is different than English. Briefly speaking, point in time (when) comes before verb while duration (how long) comes after verb. Here is a summary: 


Placement of time words in a sentence

Time words, the WHEN part of a sentence, have a special place in Chinese. They usually come at the beginning of a sentence, right after the subject. Occasionally you'll see them before the subject, but the place you won't be seeing them is at the end of the sentence (where they frequently appear in English).
Placement of Time Words
Subject Time whenVerb phrase 
我 今天工作 
你们 每天洗澡 
他 星期二来 

Placement of duration in a sentence

Whenever you talk about FOR HOW LONG, you're getting into duration. It's not the same as a regular time word; it has its own rules.
Placement of duration
Subject Time when Place word Verb phrase Place word Time duration
我 住 在 中国 三年 了 
我 去年 在 北京 学习 了 三 个 月
他 上 个 星期 在 家里 看 电视 看 了 二十 个 小时

Please write sentences by using the given words:
1)   她      两个月    在美国    了      学习    
2)他      上午    昨天    体育馆       去了           
3)我      吃饭    在食堂        中午      每天
4)我      学中文   每周一     在UB       
5)王家明       今天    了     在图书馆     看了   看书    五个小时
6)   杰克    三个学期     学      了     学中文   了
7)他       两个月      去年暑假       工作      在中国     了 
8)我       两个小时    上       今天      了        上中文课       在UB

Reference:

No comments:

Post a Comment