exPreSSiNG SeqUeNCe
42.542.3.3 indicating the relationship ‘as soon as... then.. .’
To indicate that some event occurs ‘as soon as’ another event occurs, say:
一 yī VP 1 就 jiù VP 2
as soon as VP 1 then VP 2我们一到北京，就去爬长城。
我們一到北京，就去爬長城。
Wǒmen yī dào Běijīng, jiù qù pá chángchéng.
As soon as we get to Beijing we will go climb the Great Wall.NoteWhen 一 yc occurs immediately before a [prepositional phrase +] verb or verb phrase, it always means
‘as soon as.’ When 一 yc occurs immediately before a classifier, it is always the number ‘one.’42.4 Indicating ‘afterwards’ in a separate sentence
Mandarin has a number of sentence adverbs, adverbs that occur at the beginning of a sentence,
to introduce an event that happens afterwards. The most common are 以后/以後 yǐhòu,
然后/然後 ránhòu, and 后来/後來 hòulái.以后/以後 yǐhòu ‘afterwards, later’
以后/以後 yǐhòu is the most neutral of the sentence adverbs used to indicate ‘afterwards.’请先喝点茶吧！以后我们出去吃晚饭。
請先喝點茶吧！以後我們出去吃晚飯。
Qǐng xiān hē diǎn chá ba! Yǐhòu wǒmen chūqu chī wǎnfàn.
Drink a little tea first. Afterwards we will go out to eat dinner.然后/然後 ránhòu ‘afterwards/after that’
然后/然後 ránhòu can only be used to indicate sequence between two events that occur in
close temporal sequence to each other.我们看了电影。然后我们去了咖啡店喝咖啡。
我們看了電影。然後我們去了咖啡店喝咖啡。
Wǒmen kàn le diànyǐng. Ránhòu wǒmen qù le kāfēi diàn hē kāfēi.
We saw a movie. Afterwards, we went to a coffee shop and drank coffee.后来/後來 hòulái ‘afterwards’
后来/後來 hòulái can only be used to indicate sequence between two events that have already
occurred.我昨天早上考了中文。后来我回宿舍睡觉了。
我昨天早上考了中文。後來我回宿舍睡覺了。
Wǒ zuótiān zǎoshang kǎo le Zhōngwén. Hòulái wǒ huí sùshè shuì jiào le.
Yesterday morning I had a Chinese test. Afterwards I went back to the dormitory and
went to sleep.42.5 Comparing 以前 yHqián ‘before’ with 以后/以後 yHhòu ‘after’
In some ways, the uses of 以前 yǐqián ‘before’ and 以后/以後 yǐhòu ‘after’ are parallel.
Both must occur in the first clause of a sequence sentence, and both words occur at the end of
their clause.However, the words are different in their occurrence with perfective 了 le. The perfective
了 le may occur in the 以后/以後 yǐhòu clause but it may not occur in the 以前 yǐqián clause.
Compare these sentences.