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

He went to China for work.

他去了中国工作。

<Tā qù le Zhōngguó gōngzuò.>

What movie did you watch?

你看了什么电影？

Nǐ kàn le shénme diànyǐng?

I've bought a lot of things.

我买了很多东西。

<Wǒ mǎi le hěn duō dōngxi.>

I've bought a very expensive car.

我买了很贵的汽车。

<Wǒ mǎile hěn guì de qìchē.>

MORE DIFFICULT SENTENCES

I've bought her a very expensive present.

我给她买了很贵的礼物。

<Wǒ gěi tā mǎile hěn guì de lǐwù.>

礼 RITUAL COMPARING 物 OBJECT

I discussed many things with him.

我跟他谈了很多事。

<Wǒ gēn tā tán le hěn duō shì.>

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

Yesterday I drank quite a lot of (not a little) Chinese tea.

我昨天喝了不少绿茶。

<Wǒ zuótiān hē le bù shǎo lǜchá.>