Remembering where to put the time words, such as "yesterday,"
"tomorrow," "this week," etc. in a sentence is really important in
order to speak Chinese correctly. In Chinese you get two equally
correct choices.
Structure
Time words can appear in one of two positions in the sentence in
Chinese: either at the beginning of the sentence (before the
subject), or directly after the subject. The structures are:
Time + Subj. + Verb + Obj.
Subj. + Time + Verb + Obj.
So if you start speaking with "time first" English word order,
you can carry on and get away with it. If, however, you're saving
the time word for the end of the sentence, you can be
pretty sure that it doesn't sound at all natural to your Chinese
audience.
Examples
- 昨天 我 去 了 酒吧 。 Zuótiān wǒ qù le
jiǔbā.Yesterday I went to the
bar.
- 我 昨天 去 了 酒吧 。 Wǒ zuótiān qù le
jiǔbā.I went to the bar
yesterday.
- 下 个 星期 他 要 回 国 。 Xià gè xīngqī tā yào huí
guó.Next week he is going back to his
country.
- 他 下 个 星期 要 回 国 。 Tā xià gè xīngqī yào huí
guó.He is going back to his country next
week.
- 明年 我 要 开 一 个 公司 。 Míngnián wǒ yào kāi yī gè
gōngsī.Next year I want to open a
company.
- 我 明年 要 开 一 个 公司 。 Wǒ míngnián yào kāi yī gè
gōngsī.I want to open a company next
year.
- 下 个 月 我们 结婚 吧 ？ Xià gè yuè wǒmen jiéhūn
ba?Next month shall we get
married?
- 我们 下 个 月 结婚 吧 ？ Wǒmen xià gè yuè jiéhūn
ba?Shall we get married next
month?
- 现在 你 能 来 我 办公室 吗 ？ Xiànzài nǐ néng lái wǒ
bàngōngshì ma?Now you can come to my
office?
- 你 现在 能 来 我 办公室 吗 ？ Nǐ xiànzài néng lái wǒ
bàngōngshì ma?Can you come to my office
now?
See also
Sources and further
reading
Books
Category:A2 grammar points