Lesson 13

Video and text
Listening and speaking
Vocabulary
Grammar exercises

Question: Tell your friend you have been waiting at home for his phone call for 3 hours.

Hint 1   The time measure 3 hours should be placed after the verb 等
Hint 2   To be at home is a co-verb phrase and should be placed before the verb 等
Answer  我 在 家 等 你 电 话 等 了 三 个 小 时 了 。 Listen
Comments  Adverbs of time are normally placed before verbs. However, a time measure should be placed after a verb in an affirmative sentence. The aspectual marker 了should be placed after a verb. The 了le at the end of the above sentence brings the action up to the present. It implies that the speaker is still waiting. Without the 了 le at the end of the sentence, the meaning is that the action took place in the past. For instance, 我 学 了 一 年 中 文 了 wŏ xué le yì nián Zhōngwén le I have been learning Chinese for a year implies that the speaker is still learning Chinese. Without the 了 le at the end of the sentence the meaning changes: 我 学 了 一 年 中 文 wŏ xué le yì nián Zhōngwén I learnt Chinese for a year. This implies that the speaker is not learning Chinese at present.
Index