Search from various English teachers...
Helen TianProfessional Teacher
Learning Article : When Do We Not Say 了 When Talking About The Past

Discuss the Article : When Do We Not Say 了 When Talking About The Past

When Do We Not Say 了 When Talking About The Past

Expressing past tenses in Chinese can take some figuring out. Learn here why the reliable 了 (le) particle isn't always the right way to indicate you are talking about things that have happened before the present.

Comments · 15

5
the sentence 昨天我去了我朋友家 already has the past tense specified "昨天", so why do you add "了“？It is the main sentence, so according to what you wrote, 了 is not required?
2
We used 了(le) after these verbs you said that(有, 想, 认为, 喜欢,讨厌, 说, 告诉) sometimes for some special moods. 有(you)了(le) means  pregnancy at the north China mostly, it's a euphemistical sentence that '  I'm pregnant' . so don't use it after 有(you). Other words can use 了(le) for some potential expressions , like '我想你' means 'I miss you', '我想你了' means 'I miss you very much and I want to be together with you right now.' .....
2

汉语无时态！

自然不存在过去时，不存在过去时，“了”当然不是时态标志，不是时态标志当然表达过去的事件就不是必须使用的。

认为汉语有时态是自卑心理的产物，当年中国的语法相信老外的观点，汉语没时态，没语法标记，没有屈折变化是简单粗糙，原始，没有进化完全的语言，于是这些自卑的语言学家们想尽办法证明，汉语也是有时态的，汉语也是有语法标记的，汉语甚至也是有屈折变化的。

不要再自卑了，不要再害人害己了，汉语哪里有什么时态！

语言是多样性的时态只是语言表达的一种手段，不使用时态一样可以表达人类想要表达的一切内容。

时态对于一种语言来说绝对不是必须！不同的语言时态个数完全不同，那么不是说明那种那些时态个数少的语言一样能表达时态多的语言表达的东西吗？汉语只不过时态少到为零而已。


1
Thanks for this article !
It makes thinks more clear to me now !
1

Very useful article. I appreciate it, there is much more valuable explanation than in my Chinese textbooks.

 谢谢, 米蓝

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn a language from the comfort of your own home. Browse our selection of experienced language tutors and enroll in your first lesson now!

Start Learning Today