Difference between revisions of "Expressing "until" with "dao""

Revision as of 13:46, 26 December 2014

One of the cool features of Chinese is complements, and in this article we introduce a few of them.

One kind of complement in Chinese involves putting 到, 给 or 在 after the verb. These are used to indicate direction, target and location, respectively.

到 (dào) indicates that the action has obtained a goal or a certain state. Any verb that uses the complement 见 can also use 到.

在 (zài) indicates a person or thing coming to a certain place. It is usually followed my a location or a place.

Subject + Verb + 到 / 给 / 在 ...

我昨天晚上工作到 十二点半。Wǒ zuótiān wǎnshàng gōngzuò dào shí'èr diǎn bàn.I worked until 12:30 last night.
请你坐在 我旁边儿。Qǐng nǐ zuò zài wǒ pángbiān er.Please come and sit next to me.
我今天早上发了一封电子邮件给你。Wǒ jīntiān zǎoshang fā le yī fēng diànzǐ yóujiàn gěi nǐ.I sent an e-mail to you this morning.

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 <div class="liju">
-* 我 昨天晚上 工作 <strong>到</strong> <em>十二点半</em>。<span class="trans">I worked until 12:30 last night.</span>
+* 我 昨天晚上 工作 <strong>到</strong> <em>十二点半</em>。<span class="pinyin">Wǒ zuótiān wǎnshàng gōngzuò <strong>dào</strong> <em>shí'èr diǎn bàn</em>.</span><span class="trans">I worked until 12:30 last night.</span>
-* 请 你 坐 <strong>在</strong> <em>我 旁 边儿</em>。<span class="trans">Please come and sit next to me.</span>
+* 请 你 坐 <strong>在</strong> <em>我 旁 边儿</em>。<span class="pinyin">Qǐng nǐ zuò <strong>zài</strong> <em>wǒ pángbiān er</em>.</span><span class="trans">Please come and sit next to me.</span>
-* 我 今天早上 发了 一封 电子邮件 <strong>给</strong> <em>你</em>。<span class="trans">I sent an e-mail to you this morning.</span>
+* 我 今天早上 发了 一封 电子邮件 <strong>给</strong> <em>你</em>。<span class="pinyin">Wǒ jīntiān zǎoshang fā le yī fēng diànzǐ yóujiàn <strong>gěi</strong> <em>nǐ</em>.</span><span class="trans">I sent an e-mail to you this morning.</span>
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