The particles 了 (le) and 过 (guò) in Chinese can both come after a verb and both
can be used to place events in time. Despite that similarity, they have
different functions that are important to get right. You can even use both
particles in the same sentence, so here’s a run-down of how to use them in
relation to each other.
A quick recap of 了 and 过
If you’re not sure of what these two particles are for, here’s a quick recap.
了 has several different uses and is one of the harder parts of Chinese grammar
for learners to get right. You can read more about 了 in Chinese grammar elsewhere on this site.
Here are a few 了 example sentences to refresh your memory:
过 is a bit more straightforward compared to 了. It’s used to indicate having
experienced an event in the past, or an event having occurred. 过 is covered in
more detail elsewhere. A couple of
examples:
With that refresher on 了 and 过 separately, let’s take a look at how they
compare to each other and work together.
Comparing 了 and 过
To see the central difference between these two particles, compare the following
example sentences:
In this example, 了 only indicates that the event was completed twice in some
time frame that must be clear from context. 过 focuses focuses on it having been
experienced twice in the past. You can see the different focus in the English
translations.
Not, not yet and never
了 can’t be used with 没 when talking about the completeness of actions.
This makes sense: 了 indicates that an action is complete in the time-frame
being talked about, and 没 indicates that something didn’t happen, so the two
clash with each other.
Instead, 没 is used alone to simply indicate that something did not happen in
some specific time frame:
As you can see, 没 expresses that this did not happen in the context under
discussion. 了 cannot also appear here, as it would clash with that expression.
In contrast, 过 can appear together with 没. That is because it’s about an event
or action having been experienced in the past. If it has not been experienced,
then 没 and 过 can work together to express that:
Again, you can see the difference is subtle but you can get a sense of it in the
English translations. With 没 alone, the statement is simpler: that thing did not
happen then. With 没 and 过, it’s more about the current situation: up till now,
that has not happened.
Using 过 and 了 together
The two particles can also appear together in sentences like this:
So what is the difference between that and the more famous “吃饭了吗？”?
Functionally there is very little difference: both are asking if you have eaten.
As with many of these situations, the difference with 过 is largely emphasis.
The closest thing in English would be the addition of the word “now”, as shown
in the translation. A more rigid and emphatic translation just to demonstrate
this might be “Is it now the case that you have eaten?”. In any case, you’re
always better off getting more exposure and input to build a natural feel for
this.
Some more examples of using 过 and 了 together:
Compare that to this sentence:
Another example of 过 and 了 together:
To continue the example from above:
Or even more emphatically:
It’s good to get exposure to more sentences to try and build a natural feel for
these.
When 了 and 过 are interchangeable
There are some situations where 了 and 过 are equivalent to each other and
either could be used in a sentence. For example:
There is no particular difference between these two examples. In each sentence,
了 and 过 mark the action as completed in that time frame.