Does the 了 (le) particle indicate past tense?

Answer 1

Traditionally, Chinese only has two tenses. Present and past.

But, we can express "ideas of tense" by adding various characters. These are vague concepts of what we think of as "tense" in Western languages.

To express past tense, the easiest way is to start the sentence with a time peg—today, tomorrow, last Monday, next year, etc.

The Chinese language is based on characters for clarity of expression and does not conform to any sense of time—as we may understand it in English. Chinese is also extremely contextual. So, the only way to correctly interpret meaning is—in context.

Thus, the "le 了" particle gives an 'impression' of the past tense and can be considered as the past tense particle—in certain contexts. But it expresses the idea of a "completed action." Which may be in the past, present, or future.

Some examples:

tā qù le / S/he went. (no context. a completed action at some space in time)

zuǒ tiān tā qù le / S/he went yesterday. (Completed action)

tā qù xué xiào le / S/he went to (the) school. (no distinct time, a completed action)

tā kàn shū le / S/he read books. S/he read a book. S/he was reading book(s). (Completed action)

tā kàn shū qù le / S/he went to read. S/he went out to read. (Completed action)

tā qù le xué xiào kàn shū / S/he went to school to read. (Completed action)

tā kàn le shù qù le xué xiào / S/he read (a book) and went to school. S/he read a book going to school. (Completed actions)

It's important to remember that concepts of time in the Chinese language are much simpler and vague that that of most Western languages. Clarity comes from context and additional information, like more characters.

Answer 2

This is a very good question! Chinese is a non-grammatical language. As a nonnative speaker myself it took me years to understand the Chinese character 了 (le5). And just like you, I referred to is as a past particle, like in Roaminzed languages.

For me, I interpret this character as "an event has occurred". Or "an event is occurring." It represents "change" as well as "continuation". In the ancient oracle-bone script, it is said that the character 了 shows a baby wrapped up (in a blanket or cloth).

Answer 3

了 has a lot of different functions including the past tense as answered above, but for example, called completed action 了. More technically, it's called the perfective aspect 了.

eg: 我卖了这些车以后，我就会有很多钱。

Wǒ mài le zhèxiē chē yǐhòu, wǒ jiù huì yǒu hěnduō qián.

After I've sold these cars, I'll have a lot of money.

了also has a different pronunciation Liao. It also has some different functions

Answer 4

It indicates either past tense or the completion of an action.

For example:

1. 他回家了。--past tense.
2. 我吃过了。I have already eaten/ completion of an action

Answer 5

I would say the answer is YES and NO. Why?

Mandarin Chinese does not have any verb conjugations as English to express tense. All verbs have a single form. How do we express tense in Chinese? There are couple strategies.

1, state the time, e.g. 昨天我加班。(I worked overtime yesterday.)

2, use “V+过” to express past experience. e.g. 我吃过北京烤鸭.（I have eaten Peking duck.）

3, using “V+ particle 了” to complete actions.

  　e.g. 你吃早饭了吗？--我吃了。(Did you have breakfast? –I ate.)

Thus, in this scenario, the particle 了 indicates that the action occurred in the past and has been completed. That’s why I said the answer is YES.

However, particle 了 also indicates other things, such as the happening of something, the emergence of a circumstance and the change of a situation. It is used at the tail of a sentence, indicating an affirmative.

Eg,   他跟家人去上海了。（He went to Shanghai with his family.）

        孩子已经睡着了。( The baby fell asleep. He was awake.)

       下雨了,我们回去吧。（It started raining, and let’s go home.）

        我18岁了。(I turn to 18. I am not 17 anymore)

In addition, particle 了 indicates an act is about to take place. There are couple fixed phases to express this. Such as: 要…了/就要…了/ 快要…了/快…了

Eg, 1，她要走了。(She is going to leave.)

       2，他就要大学毕业了。 （He is about to graduate from college. He is a senior）

       3, 圣诞节快要到了，我想给家人买些礼物。

                      （Christmas is coming. I want to buy some gifts for family. ）

       4，你妈妈快来了，别着急。(Your mom is coming. Don’t worry. )

In these scenarios, none of them indicates past actions. On the contrary, they indicate actions occurring in the future. Therefor the answer is NO.

Hope the answer helps you guys have a better understanding of particle 了. Thanks.

Answer 6

1）verb+了：past tense. 下了雨(the rain has passed, no rain anymore now.)

2) the end of sentence: the thing is happening which is different from the status before. 下雨了（it is raining now. indicating that the weather has changed.)

Answer 7