Past events in Mandarin Chinese grammar (there's no past tense!)
Talking about past events in Chinese is actually quite straightforward, because Chinese does not have tenses. That is, you don't need to change the verb to indicate when something happened like you do in English.
Instead, Chinese tends to rely on context to indicate that something happened in the past. You can simply indicate that the event happened in the past with a time word like “yesterday” or “two hours ago”. Sometimes you don't need to indicate past at all.
Past events with time words
This is often the easiest and most straightforward way to talk about past events. By including a time word that sets the event in time, you make it clear when it happened. Sometimes you don't even need to change the sentence in any other way.
Below is a list of common time words for past events, but there are of course endless time words in Chinese. This list should get you started.
昨天 (zuótiān): yesterday
我昨天在食堂吃饭了。
我昨天遇见了他。
昨天发生了一件有趣的事。
前天 (qiántiān): the day before yesterday
他前天到北京的。
假如今天是星期五，前天就是星期三。
我前天收到了你的信。
上个星期 (shàng ge xīngqī): last week
上个星期我感冒了。
上个星期天天下雪。
她上个星期没有上课。
上个月 (shàng ge yuè): last month
现在是九月，那么上个月是八月。
我上个月在那里度假。
他上个月辞的职。
去年 (qùnián): last year
我们是去年认识的。
我去年就戒烟了。
我去年夏天去了中国旅游。
前年 (qiánnián): the year before last
他前年去世的。
前年这里下大雪。
她前年退休的。
以前 (yǐqián): before
This is a general purpose word for talking about past events or situations. It's a very easy way to express “used to” or “in the past”.
以前，他不喜欢吃辣的东西。
以前，我们没有手机。
以前，他很害羞。
……前
： … agoBy putting a specific amount of time in front of 前, you can express how long ago the past event happened or was happening.
十年前他来到了中国。
一个小时前我们去散了个步。
三个月前她在上海。
……的时候 (de shíhou): when …
You can place things in time with 的时候 - it goes after the event or action it's linked to.
我小的时候不喜欢吃蔬菜。
他做饭的时候伤到了自己。
我在美国的时候很想家。
Negate past events with 没 (méi)
To negate past events in Chinese, i.e. to say that something didn't happen, you can use 没 or 没有.
对不起，刚才没听见。
我没想到在这里会碰到你。
你没有犯错误。
Past events with 是……的 (shì…de)
A slightly trickier way to talk about past events in Chinese is with the 是……的 construction. As this isn't the main topic of this post we won't go into too much detail, but the structure for this is:
You can use this structure to emphasise certain details about an action, such as where or when it happened. 是……的 is usually used to talk about past events. Some examples:
我们是在伦敦认识的。
We met in London. It was in London that we met.我是跟我哥哥一起开车去青岛的。
I drove to Qingdao with my brother. It was with my brother that I drove to Qingdao.他们是去年搬的家。
They moved house last year. It was last year that they moved house.Each of the example sentences for 是……的 has been given a double translation to show how this structure draws attention to certain details of the action. Read more: 是……的 construction.
Chinese has aspect but not tense
Always remember that Chinese does not have a past tense. It doesn't have any tenses at all. What it does have, though, is something called aspect.
Unlike tense, aspect isn't about when an action happened but whether or not it is completed in the time-frame we're talking about. Aspect can appear in the past, present or future.
This is the difference between “I will have done it” and “I will do it”. Both of those sentences are future tense, but in one of them the action is complete and in the other it isn't complete.
了 (le) is not about the past!
One of the uses of the particle 了 in Chinese is to mark completed aspect. Many learners of Chinese confuse this for 了 being about past events or the past tense. It's not!
了 will often appear in sentences about the past, but it can also appear with present or future actions. It's an aspect marker (amongst other things), not a tense marker.
This is quite hard to grasp, but try not to over-think it in the early stages. The best advice is to simply listen to and read as much Chinese as you can (that is nearly always the best thing you can do for your Chinese).
