Aspect

Revision as of 06:10, 24 January 2014 by Yucui (talk | contribs)
Also known as: 动作状态 (dòngzuò zhuàngtài)  and 语态 (yǔtài).

Chinese does not use the concept of formal tenses. Instead, it employs what is called "grammatical aspect." Because Chinese does not have tenses, the question, "how do you form the past tense in Chinese?" is non-sensical. The real question is, "how do you refer to events in the past in Chinese?" You do this through aspect in Chinese, not tense[1].

Aspectual Particles

Aspect is expressed in Chinese through several key particles (click through for more information on each):

  1. 了: The Perfective Aspectual Particle
  2. 过: The Experiential Aspectual Particle
  3. 着: The Durative Aspectual Particle

Sources and further reading

  1. See Sinosplice.com: "Aspect, Not Tense"