describing situations that are generally true
34.8
The adverb 已经/已經 yǐjing ‘already’ often occurs in these sentences to emphasize the fact
that the situation has been ongoing from some time in the past up to the present time.
她已经学了三年的中文了。
她已經學了三年的中文了。
Tā yǐjing xué le sān nián de Zhōngwén le.
She has already studied three years of Chinese.
我教中文已经有二十多年了。
我教中文已經有二十多年了。
Wǒ jiào Zhōngwén yǐjing yǒu èrshí duō nián le.
I’ve already taught Chinese for over twenty years.
34.8 Describing situations that are generally true
To indicate that a situation is generally true, the verb is presented without any modifiers that
indicate time phrase: no time phrases, no adverbs, no verb suffixes.
中国人口很多。
中國人口很多。
Zhōngguó rénkǒu hěn duō.
China has a very large population.
这儿的天气很热。
這兒的天氣很熱。
Zhèr de tiānqì hěn rè.
The weather is very hot here.
