What are all the verb tenses in Cantonese?
Such as for past, present, and future... Does Chinese have a subjunctive tense? What are all the past tenses (like past in reference to something that happened a few seconds ago, something that happened a long time ago...what Time Markers are used? Like Yi Chin?) What are the future tenses.. like will _____, would _____, should _____, could ____? Thanks!! - Jay
verb tenses...in chinese
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Dylan Sung
Re: verb tenses...in chinese
Look for Matthews and Yip's Cantonese Grammar published by Routlege.
Chinese doesn't have tenses, but has moods and aspects. Why? It is simpler to say that verb doesn't change to indicate tense (time). Therefore, you can say, Chinese only has one tense, the present, but there is a way around this.
The subjunctive is a mood, so yes, Chinese has a subjunctive mood. An aspect can be thought of as the state an action is in. For instance, if it is completed, continuing, or experiential.
Ngoh sik gan fan = I am eating a meal (continuative aspect)
Ngoh sik gwoh mong gwoh = I have eat mangos before (experiential aspect)
Ngoh sik zo yeh = I've had something to eat (completed aspect)
In order to tell time in Chinese, you need to use time phrasing, so for past time events, you'd use the equivalent of English 'yesterday'
kam yat ngoh sik ping gwoh = yesterday I ate an apple (time is in the past)
kam yat ngoh sik gan ping gwoh dik si = yesterday when I was eating an apple (past continuative)
etc...
So if you wanna say something about the future you'd put in another time word indicating the future.
Other moods include desire, though some folks mistaken this for a future tense, it isn't.
Ngoh seong sik ping gwoh = I would like to eat an apple
Mood, 'shall' = wui
ngoh wui sik ping gwoh = I shall eat an apple
Cheers,
Dyl.
Chinese doesn't have tenses, but has moods and aspects. Why? It is simpler to say that verb doesn't change to indicate tense (time). Therefore, you can say, Chinese only has one tense, the present, but there is a way around this.
The subjunctive is a mood, so yes, Chinese has a subjunctive mood. An aspect can be thought of as the state an action is in. For instance, if it is completed, continuing, or experiential.
Ngoh sik gan fan = I am eating a meal (continuative aspect)
Ngoh sik gwoh mong gwoh = I have eat mangos before (experiential aspect)
Ngoh sik zo yeh = I've had something to eat (completed aspect)
In order to tell time in Chinese, you need to use time phrasing, so for past time events, you'd use the equivalent of English 'yesterday'
kam yat ngoh sik ping gwoh = yesterday I ate an apple (time is in the past)
kam yat ngoh sik gan ping gwoh dik si = yesterday when I was eating an apple (past continuative)
etc...
So if you wanna say something about the future you'd put in another time word indicating the future.
Other moods include desire, though some folks mistaken this for a future tense, it isn't.
Ngoh seong sik ping gwoh = I would like to eat an apple
Mood, 'shall' = wui
ngoh wui sik ping gwoh = I shall eat an apple
Cheers,
Dyl.