Chinese-all-day-breakfast/MD/All-Day-Breakfast/docs/g1-25.md

Placement of time-words

A time-word or -expression is normally placed either after the subject or at the beginning of a sentence:

我們十點半上中文課
十點半我們上中文課

Some notes:

1. A time-word does not take a preposition:

   我三點下課
   but not 我在三點下課
   

2. A time-word should not be placed at the end of a sentence:

   她晚上來
       She came in the evening.
   or 晚上她來
   but not 她來晚上
   

3. If you have more than one time-word, the bigger unit goes before the smaller:

   今天晚上八點
       at 8 o'clock this evening
   

4. If you have both time-word and place-word, usually the time-word goes first:

   我晚上八點在圖書館等你
   你哥哥現在在哪兒工作﹖
   明天你幾點在哪兒上課﹖
       When and where are you going to have your class tomorrow?
   

5. Time-word + 的 + noun (time-words modifying nouns)

   A: 你想看幾點的電影﹖
       What show do you want to see? /literally/ What time's film
       do you want to see?
   B: 我想看中午十二點半的(電影)。
       I want to see the film at 12:30 at noon.
   
   A: 這是今天的報嗎﹖
       Is this today's paper?
   B: 不是今天的報﹐是昨天的。
       It isn't today's paper, it's yesterday's.