Question about 了 When 了comes after verb and when it come at the end of sentence? In my Chinese book wrote if wee want to emphazie to past tense, we use 了after verb and when we want to emphazie on chan

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Anee

Question about 了

When 了comes after verb and when it come at the end of sentence?

In my Chinese book wrote if wee want to emphazie to past tense, we use 了after verb and when we want to emphazie on changing situations, we use 了 at the end of sentences.

Now in my Chinese book wrote these sentences are wrong :（because place of 了is incorrect)

❌昨天我骑了自行车去书店。(CORRECT :昨天我骑自行车去书店了。)

❌他感冒了，昨天我去了看他。(CORRECT :他感冒了，昨天我去看他了。)

But I think these sentences are correct, because in chinese we also can use 了 after verb, such as these sentences. Could you please Tell me why here is wrong?

May 28, 2020 10:15 AM

Comments · 2

As a native speaker, I would say those sentences could be totally fine for Chinese to understand. However, the position of 了 could change the focus of your sentence slightly.

昨天我骑了自行车去书店。

The first sentence is correct if you want to slightly emphasize you rode the bike to the bookstore.

昨天我骑自行车去书店了。

However, the correct version is better if you want to slightly emphasize you went to the bookstore by bike.

他感冒了，昨天我去了看他。

We would barely use this sentence if we want to express "He was ill, and I went to see him yesterday." Instead, we sometimes use 他感冒了，昨天我去看了他, and sometimes use 他感冒了，昨天我去看他了。

These two expressions have no difference in meaning.

May 28, 2020