Time words and word order

Remembering where to put the time words, such as "yesterday", "tomorrow", "this week" etc., in a sentence is really important to speaking Chinese correctly. Luckily, it's similar to English, so it's easy to master.

Structure

In Chinese, time words can appear in one of two positions in the sentence: either at the beginning of the sentence (before the subject), or directly after the subject. The structures are:

Time + Subject + Verb + Object

Subject + Time + Verb + Object

So if you start speaking with "time first" English word order, you can carry on and get away with it. If, however, you're saving the time word for the end of the sentence, you can be pretty sure that it doesn't sound at all natural to your Chinese audience.

Examples

• 昨天 我 去 了 酒吧。I went to the bar yesterday.
• 我 昨天 去 了 酒吧。I went to the bar yesterday.
• 下 个 星期 他 要 回国。He is going back to his country next week.
• 他 下 个 星期 要 回国。He is going back to his country next week.
• 明年 我 要 开 一 个 公司。Next year I want to open a company.
• 我 明年 要 开 一 个 公司。I want to open a company next year.
• 下 个 月 我们 结婚 吧？Next month shall we get married?
• 我们 下 个 月 结婚 吧？Shall we get married next month?
• 现在 你 能 来 我 办公室 吗？Now you can come to my office?
• 你 现在 能 来 我 办公室 吗？Can you come to my office now?

See also

• Word order
• Using "zai" with verbs
• Wanting to do something with yao
• Expressing completion with le

Sources and further reading

Books

• Chinese: An Essential Grammar, Second Edition (pp. 75-7) →buy
• Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 1 (3rd ed) (pp. 205-6) →buy
• 40 Lessons for Basic Chinese Course (基础汉语40课上册） (p. 98)→buy