talkiNG aBoUt dUratioN aNd FreqUeNCy
39.1
我等了他三个小时了。
我等了他三個小時了。
Wǒ děng le tā sān gè xiǎoshí le.
I’ve been waiting for him for three hours.Pattern 1: verb + object verb + duration
The verb occurs twice in the verb phrase. First it is followed by the object, then it is followed
by the duration phrase.
Say this Not this我每天晚上看书看四个小时。 *我每天晚上看书四个小时。
我每天晚上看書看四個小時。 我每天晚上看書四個小時。
Wǒ měitiān wǎnshang kàn shū
kàn sì gè xiǎoshí.Wǒ měitiān wǎnshang kàn shū
sì gè xiǎoshí.
Every night I read (books) for four hours.If the sentence refers to a past event, the second occurrence of the verb is followed by 了 le.
我睡觉睡了八个钟头。
我睡覺睡了八個鐘頭。
Wǒ shuì jiào shuì le bā gè zhōngtóu.
I slept for eight hours.我等他等了三个小时。
我等他等了三個小時。
Wǒ děng tā děng le sān gè xiǎoshí.
I waited for him for three hours.C37.1
Pattern 2: verb + object 有 yǒu + duration
The verb and its object are stated first, followed by 有 yǒu and the duration phrase. 有 yǒu
is not directly followed by 了 le, though 了 le may occur at the end of the sentence.
我等王明有三个小时了。
我等王明有三個小時了。
Wǒ děng Wáng Míng yǒu sān gè xiǎoshí le.
I have been waiting for Wang Ming for three hours.Pattern 3: verb + duration 的 de object noun phrase
The duration phrase plus 的 de occurs immediately before the object noun phrase. This pattern
cannot be used when the object noun phrase is a pronoun.
我学了两年的中文。
我學了兩年的中文。
Wǒ xué le liǎng nián de Zhōngwén.
I studied Chinese for two years.我睡了八个钟头的觉。
我睡了八個鐘頭的覺。
Wǒ shuì le bā gè zhōngtóu de jiào.
I slept for eight hours.的 de is sometimes omitted.
那个学生已经学了两年(的)中文了。
那個學生已經學了兩年(的)中文了。
Nàge xuésheng yǐjing xué le liǎng nián (de) Zhōngwén le.
That student has been studying Chinese for two years already.