Learning : Knowing When To Go - Today, Tomorrow Or Yesterday
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eiji

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2007-10-29
Language : French
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 Eiji  
2007-10-29 / 01:46AM

Hi Benny,
In this lesson you write : “Zuó tiān wǒ qù Shànghǎi”
Whereas in the previous one, you say we have to add “le” at “zuotian ni qu le…”
Weishenme ? :)

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editorbenny

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2007-07-25
Language : None
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Comments : 128
 Benny bennysland.com 
2007-10-29 / 10:18AM

Ni hao Eiji. “le” is used to indicate the past tense, usually it has to be add. But sometimes it’s omitted, because there are time words in the sentence, for example, “yesterday”, “last year”. I suggest you always add “le” when you mean past tense.

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eiji

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2007-10-29
Language : French
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 Eiji gmail.com 
2007-11-02 / 02:16AM

Whao ! You answer for real !
What you do is really great !
Thanks ^^

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editorbenny

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2007-07-25
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 Benny bennysland.com 
2007-11-02 / 10:18AM

Bu ke qi! Eiji. I’ll be more happy if you ask more questions! :)

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JUANPA

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2007-07-26
Language : None
Posts : 2
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Comments : 5
 juan pablo benavente hotmail.com 
2007-12-02 / 04:53AM

hi benny I am glad that the page its taking form and I am waiting for exams
I want to ask you how can I say?
next week
next year

and if you form this words the same way that tomorow, today and yestarday.
xie xie, zaijian
pd: What does it means Weishenme?

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editorbenny

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2007-07-25
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Comments : 128
 Benny bennysland.com 
2007-12-02 / 11:28AM

Ni hao Juan!

xià ge xīng qī 下个星期 next week

míng nián 明年 next year

And weishenme means “why”.

By the way, the exam is available now. You can find them in “My Skill” on the Homepage.

Xia ci jian!

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lionBeat

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2007-11-28
Language : English, Russian, Romanian, Turkish
Posts : 1
Responses : 4
Comments : 10
 Sergiu Turcanu turcanu.net 
2007-12-07 / 07:16AM

I liked the last part with history/mistery and present! Sounded like a bit of Chinese wisdom :)

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nelfie

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2008-01-31
Language : None
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Comments : 5
 nelfie googlemail.com 
2008-01-31 / 08:03PM

very witty ending, lol!

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TheAnsw3r

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2008-05-11
Language : English, German, Vietnamese
Posts : 0
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 Ngo, Nhat Lai yahoo.de 
2008-05-12 / 12:04AM

very great lesson! and your last words.. how true :)!

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Gilmorized

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2008-05-06
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 Anna hotmail.com 
2008-05-15 / 12:02AM

Great lesson! I’m really learning alot from this page. Loving it! :D

but how do you say “i’m going to China in August”??

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valandilringeril

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2008-05-18
Language : None
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 Chris yahoo.com 
2008-05-19 / 01:10AM

haha, Benny, you’re awesome.
Great way to end the lesson.

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Comments Owner
 TeachBrian gmail.com 
2008-06-12 / 07:52AM

Thanks!

Clever ending!

:)

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DzenLi

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2008-07-23
Language : None
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Comments : 5
 Marta Chan o2.pl 
2008-07-31 / 04:12PM

TO: Anna
八月我去中國. I’m going to China in August.

81

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Dawe

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2008-10-23
Language : None
Posts : 1
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 Johnny yahoo.com 
2008-11-01 / 06:34PM

hello prof benny!
what do ya mean by . . .Xia ci jian?
and how can i write calligraphy in keyboard?

xie xie. . .

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chinese

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2009-03-01
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 Schaguna Tamir hotmail.com 
2009-03-02 / 08:02PM

lao shi benny, ni hao ^^ wo yao shuo, ni hen hao laoshi. is that right? hehe.

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LeslieWilliams

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2009-06-16
Language : English
Posts : 0
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 blacklinguist yahoo.com 
2009-06-18 / 01:19PM
To : Schaguna Tamir

This is a fun class, That’s good that you construct sentences out of Pinyin

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marswaco

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2009-07-20
Language : None
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 Mars hotmail.com 
2009-07-21 / 12:03AM

i’m interested in the position of the “le”, it could be located as the last word?

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marswaco

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2009-07-20
Language : None
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 Mars hotmail.com 
2009-07-21 / 12:03AM

i’m interested in the position of the “le”, it could be located as the last word?

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benny

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2007-01-01
Language : English, Mandarin Chinese
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 Benny the Mandarin Teacher bennysland.com 
2009-08-13 / 06:10PM
To : Mars

Hi Mars,

“Le” is a past tense word which is normally put after a verb. For example:

wǒ chī le wǔ fàn = I ate lunch

Benny



Learn Chinese, Learn Mandarin from AskBenny

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monmon

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2009-08-25
Language : None
Posts : 17
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 monmon yahoo.com 
2009-08-26 / 03:27PM

great, you are the best laoshi that a student have

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HeNam

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2009-05-24
Language : None
Posts : 0
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Comments : 1
 Alex Chau hotmail.com 
2009-09-01 / 04:25AM

hrm so you don’t say the word “le” ? it’s just qù ?

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jhayydee

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2009-09-04
Language : English, Tagalog
Posts : 1
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Comments : 2
 jhayydee hotmail.co.uk 
2009-09-04 / 05:01PM
To : Alex Chau

i;m confused about that 1 aswell.. :S

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newtype

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2009-06-18
Language : English, Japanese
Posts : 2
Responses : 24
Comments : 16
 mobilesuit gmail.com 
2009-09-11 / 05:45PM
To : jhayydee

You’re confused on “1”?

Why? I think it’s easy.

竹内

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newtype

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2009-06-18
Language : English, Japanese
Posts : 2
Responses : 24
Comments : 16
 mobilesuit gmail.com 
2009-09-11 / 05:58PM
To : Alex Chau

I think maybe in this case, no need to say “le”. But in the other cases, it does need “le”. I remembered that.

竹内

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biaku

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2010-01-23
Language : English
Posts : 0
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Comments : 5
 吴珊琳 gmail.com 
2010-01-25 / 01:42AM
To : mobilesuit

i think that the sentences that don’t require a “le” are those that already have a past tense in them. ( in this case, yesterday. and Benny, great ending reminded me of Kung Fu Panda.

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biaku

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2010-01-23
Language : English
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 吴珊琳 gmail.com 
2010-01-25 / 01:49AM

hmm, maybe not, the next lesson just contradicted that. don’t listen to me, I just a white belt.

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joey

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2008-09-23
Language : English, Mandarin Chinese
Posts : 1
Responses : 80
Comments : 8
 Joey askbenny.net 
2010-01-26 / 11:51AM
To : 吴珊琳

Ni Hao 吴珊琳

‘了’ is used for ‘past perfect tense’ in Chinese, in this case, the English sentence (I went to Shanghai yesterday) is ‘simple past sense’, if we translate ‘I went to Shanghai yesterday’ into Chinese one word by one word, seems we don’t need ‘了’,
but Chinese used to use ‘past perfect tense’ to talk about some actions, when they just want to tell others what happened,

for example,
A: What did you do yesterday?
B: I went to ShangHai. // simple past tense
A: 你昨天做什么了?(zuó tiān nǐ zuò shén mè lē?)
B: 我昨天去上海了. (wǒ zuó tiān qù shànghǎi lē) // past perfect tense,

Joey



Learn Chinese, Speak Mandarin.

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benny

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2007-01-01
Language : English, Mandarin Chinese
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 Benny the Mandarin Teacher askbenny.net 
2010-01-26 / 06:33PM
To : 吴珊琳

Thank you, 吴珊琳

Benny



Learn Chinese, Learn Mandarin from AskBenny

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word20

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2013-05-19
Language : None
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Comments : 32
 Giorgio gmail.com 
2013-05-21 / 01:14AM

今天我去台北。

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