Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar

talking about past experience: verb suffix 过/過 guo 37.6

To answer ‘no’ to any form of these yes–no questions, say:

A: 没有。

沒有。

Méi yǒu.

No.

C17.1, 28.1

37.5 Indicating that an action occurred again in the past: 又 yòu verb 了 le

To indicate that an action occurred again in the past, precede the [prepositional phrase +] verb

phrase with the adverb 又 yòu and follow the verb with 了 le.

他前天来了。今天早上又来了。

他前天來了。今天早上又來了。

Tā qiántiān lái le. Jīntiān zǎoshang yòu lái le.

He came the day before yesterday. This morning he came again.

Notice that the adverb 又 yòu ‘(to do) again in the past’ is closely related to the adverb 再 zài

‘(to do) again in the future.’

我昨天晚上又吃饺子了。明天不要再吃了。

我昨天晚上又吃餃子了。明天不要再吃了。

Wǒ zuótiān wǎnshang yòu chī jiǎozi le. Míngtiān bù yào zài chī le.

I ate dumplings again last night. I don’t want to eat them again tomorrow.

C36.2

Note 又 yòu... 又 yòu... means ‘both... and.. .’ and can be used to link stative verbs or adjectival verbs.

他们又饿又渴。

他們又餓又渴。

Tāmen yòu è yòu kě.

They are hungry and thirsty.

C10.8, 39.9, 43.4

37.6 Talking about past experience: verb suffix 过/過 guo

To indicate that an action has been experienced at least once in the indefinite past, follow the

verb with the verb suffix 过/過 guo.

我吃过中国饭。

我吃過中國飯。

Wǒ chīguo Zhōngguó fàn.

I’ve eaten Chinese food (before).

The verb suffix 过/過 guo is appropriate in the following circumstances:

• when talking about actions that the subject does not perform on a regular basis,


• when talking about actions that happened in the remote past,