1 · Time and place
Time words before the verb
time expressions and where they stand
When something happens goes before the verb, and a date or a clock time runs from the biggest unit to the smallest.
In English the time usually comes at the end: “I am going to Beijing tomorrow”. In Chinese it comes before the verb: 我明天去北京. The time word can stand right after the subject or at the very start, 明天我去北京 — but not after the verb. Chinese sets the scene first and lets the action happen inside it.
Because Chinese verbs never change, the time word is often the only thing in the sentence that says when. 我昨天很忙 is “I was busy yesterday”, 我今天很忙 is “I am busy today”, and nothing else in the sentence moves. Time words also need no preposition: there is no word for “on”, “at” or “in” before 星期一 or 晚上.
Dates and clock times run from big to small — the reverse of English. First the year if there is one, then the month, the day, the weekday, the part of the day, the hour and the minute: 五月八号 is 8 May, and 星期五晚上七点 is seven o’clock on Friday evening. The part of the day always comes before the hour: 上午九点, 9 a.m.
When a sentence has both a time and a place, the time comes first: subject, time, place, verb — 我晚上在家吃饭. The habit English speakers have to lose is adding the time at the end as an afterthought; in Chinese that sounds broken.
The form
| time after the subject | 我明天去北京。 |
| time at the very start | 明天我去北京。 |
| a date: month, day, weekday | 五月八号星期六 |
| clock time: part of day, hour, minute | 下午三点二十分 |
| time before place | 我晚上在家吃饭。 |
| negative | 我明天不去。 |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
A time word stands before the verb — after the subject or at the very start, never at the end.
我下午有课。I have a class this afternoon.
Dates and clock times go from the biggest unit to the smallest.
我星期天上午十点到。I will arrive at ten on Sunday morning.
When a sentence has both a time and a place, the time comes first.
他每天在公司吃午饭。He has lunch at the office every day.
Time words take no preposition: there is no word for “on”, “at” or “in” in front of them.
星期一我很忙。I am busy on Monday.
A closer look
Why big to small
The order of a date is not a quirk of the calendar: Chinese moves from the general to the particular wherever it can. A name puts the family first (王明), an address starts with the city and ends with the house number, and a date starts with the month and ends with the minute. Once the pattern is clear, a long time phrase such as 下个星期三下午两点 builds itself.
The rule “time before the verb” is a rule for points in time — the answer to “when?”. A length of time, the answer to “how long?”, goes after the verb: 我八点睡觉, “I go to bed at eight”, but 我睡了八个小时, “I slept for eight hours”. That is a topic of its own.
Exceptions and special cases (1)
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the time phrase says how long, not when
it goes after the verb, not before it.
我在北京住了两年。I lived in Beijing for two years.
A length of time measures the action, so it follows the action; only a point in time sets the scene in front of it.
How to spot it
- 今天
- 明天
- 昨天
- 现在
- 点
- 星期
- 号
Example sentences
我明天去上海。I am going to Shanghai tomorrow.
今天晚上我们去看电影吧。Let’s go and see a film this evening.
我妈妈每天早上喝茶。My mother drinks tea every morning.
火车上午九点半开。The train leaves at half past nine in the morning.
你什么时候回家？When are you going home?
我的生日是十月二十号。My birthday is on 20 October.
8 more example sentences
昨天我没去上班。I didn’t go to work yesterday.
我们下个星期考试。We have an exam next week.
商店晚上十点关门。The shop closes at ten in the evening.
他现在在家。He is at home now.
星期六你有空吗？Are you free on Saturday?
我每天七点起床。I get up at seven every day.
我们三月五号见。See you on 5 March.
你明天几点上课？What time is your class tomorrow?
Worth knowing (1)
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Telling the time in everyday speech
Half past is 半, a quarter is 一刻, and “to” is 差 before the minutes: 差五分八点 is five to eight. Two o’clock is 两点, never with 二.
现在两点一刻。It is a quarter past two.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
English puts “tomorrow” at the end and the sentence is fine. In Chinese a time word after the verb and its object sounds like an afterthought at best and is simply wrong at worst. Say when first, then what happens.
First when, then where, then what happens.
Your turn
9 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.