Time words

Since Chinese language does not have tenses, time words are an aspect of this language that turns out to be necessary to understand when the action takes place. Time words are divided into four types:

absolute time indicators: 十点 (shí diǎn) “at ten o’clock”, 星期天 (xīngqítiān) “on Sunday”, 三日六月 (sān rì liù yuè) “on June 3rd”
relative time indicators: 明天 (míngtiān) “tomorrow”, 下个月 (xià gè yuè) “next month”, 去年 (qùnián) “last year”
time names: 现在 (xiànzài) “now”, 最近 (zuìjìn) “recently”, 晚上 (wǎnshàng) “evening”
location words: together with the characters 以 (yǐ) and 之 (zhī), which we have already discussed in the lesson Location words

These expressions can serve as subject, object or determiner, often acting also as the topic of the sentence.

明天是我的生日。
míngtiān shì wǒ de shēngrì
[tomorrow to-be I ST birthday]
Tomorrow is my birthday.

现在十点。
xiànzài shí diǎn
[now ten QU:hour]
It’s ten o’clock now.

昨天的足球比赛我们都看过了。
zuótiān de zúqiú bǐsài, wǒmen dōu kànguòle
[yesterday ST football match we all to-see ASP ASP]
We all saw yesterday’s football match.

Time words can also act as verbal determiners, being placed, as any adverb, before the verb.

我昨天太忙了，无法打电话给你了。
wǒ zuótiān tài mángle, wúfǎ dǎ diànhuà gěi nǐle
[I yesterday too busy ASP unable to-make-a-phone-call you ASP]
Yesterday I was too busy and couldn’t call you.

Other types of time words are formed by prepositional compounds, which require an initial and a final moment, such as 从…起／开始 (cóng… qǐ/kāishǐ) “from…onwards” and by expressions like 以来 (yǐlái) “…up to now” and 的时候 (de shíhòu) “when”.

从今天起，张先生是你们的老师。
cóng jīntiān qǐ, zhāng xiānshēng shì nǐmen de lǎoshī
[from today to-start Zhang Mister to-be you ST teacher]
From today onwards, Mister Zhang will be your teacher.

最近以来，她看起来很不高兴的样子。
zuìjìn yǐlái, tā kàn qǐlái hěn bù gāoxìng de yàngzi
[recently up-to-now she to-look-as-if very not happy ST appearance]
Recently she looks very unhappy.

年轻的时候，他很活泼的。
niánqīng de shíhòu tā hěn huópō de
[young ST time he very lively MOD]
When he was young, he was very lively.

Cover background picture by Adi Constantin (unsplash.com)