Saying how long you have done something is pretty simple in Chinese. Saying how long you have not done something is just as easy.

Structure

Expressing how long something has not been done is slightly different to expressing the duration of an action.

So now the duration comes right after the subject and 了 is at the end of the sentence. The verb has to be negated with 没, as the action hasn't happened.

Examples

他已经 三天 没洗澡了。Tā yǐjīng sān tiān méi xǐzǎo le.He has already gone three days without showering.
我两年没抽烟了。Wǒ liǎng nián méi chōuyān le.It's been two years since I smoked.
你们 多长时间 没回家看爸妈了？ Nǐmen duō cháng shíjiān méi huíjiā kàn bàmā le? How long has it been since the last time you went back home to visit your parents？
我爷爷去了台湾以后已经 三十年 没回家了。 Wǒ yéye qù le Tàiwān yǐhòu, yǐjīng sānshí nián méi huíjiā le.It's been 30 years since my grandpa left home for Taiwan.
她妈妈去世以后，她都 两个多月 没出门了。 Tā māma qùshì yǐhòu, tā dōu liǎng gè duō yuè méi chūmén le.She hasn't been out for more than two months since her mother passed away .

In English, we may say something like "I haven't eaten since 9:00 this morning" or "I haven't been to China since the year 2000." Note that the Chinese do not tend to say somebody hasn't done something since a certain point in time. Instead, you should either express it as a duration of time that one hasn't done something (as in the above examples), or you can say "the last time somebody did something was [a certain point in time]."

我已经好几个小时没吃东西了。Wǒ yǐjīng hǎo jǐ gè xiǎoshí méi chī dōngxi le.I haven't eaten anything in several hours.
我上次来中国是 2000年。Wǒ shàngcì lái Zhōngguó shì liǎngqiān nián.The last time I came to China was the year 2000. (Same meaning as "I haven't been to China since the year 2000.")

Structure

Examples

See also

Sources and Further Reading

Books