Finished Action

_THIS IS A TESTING BETA VERSION OF THE SITE_

I BOUGHT A CAR.

HE SAID THAT…

HE WENT TO CHINA.

Finished action is remotely equivalent to past tense and sometimes present perfect in English.

To indicate that the ACTION is finished, we put 了 /le/ right behind the verb.

ACTIONS are verbs like: TO BUY, TO GO, TO DRINK

ACTIONS aren’t verbs like: TO KNOW, TO WANT, TO FEEL

These are STATES and can’t be “finished”. They remain in the present form.

BASIC EXAMPLES

I have bought fruits.

我买了水果。

Wǒ mǎi le shuǐguǒ.

I only drank four beers.

我只喝了四杯啤酒。

Wǒ zhǐ hēle sì bēi píjiǔ.

I (have) bought a lot of tea.

我买了很多茶。

Wǒ mǎi le hěnduō chá.

How many drinks did you drink?

你喝了几杯啤酒？

Nǐ hēle jǐ bēi píjiǔ?

MORE DIFFICULT SENTENCES

I told him but he wouldn't listen.

我给他说了，可是他不听。

<Wǒ gěi tā shuō le, kěshì tā bù tīng.>

COMMUNICATION

How long time did you stay in Asia?

你在亚洲呆了多久？

<Nǐ zài Yàzhōu dāile duōjiǔ?>

Last time I drank a very good tea here.

上次我在这里喝了很好的茶。

Shàng cì wǒ zài zhèli hē le hěn hǎo de chá.

UP AND DOWN

I forgot how to say this in Chinese.

我忘了这个汉语怎么说。

<Wǒ wàng le zhège hànyǔ zěnme shuō.>