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HSK Beginner: Fill-in-the-Blanks Exercise #6

The aspectual particle is a tricky beast, and despite the impression Professor Zhang may have given you in quickly sweeping the entire subject under the carpet to return to discussing the Great Wall, the difference between the three is very important. Proper use of 了, 着 and 过 is so essential, in fact, that we've created this separate test devoted just to it.

The material here is so foundational, in fact, that we recommend this test to students far above the Beginner level ("just to be safe..."). So wade forth into our 15 sample exercises which test you on the foundations of using aspectual particles. Can you tell them apart? Do you know what they mean? If you run into trouble, feel free to leave questions in the discussion section below. We're more than happy to explain why some answers are correct and others... just plain wrong.

Echo

said on

October 15, 2008

这是一个非常全面的关于“着、了、过”的测试。 It covers most situations(esp. some special situations) that you can use them. Intermediate or even Advanced students will find it's helpful too.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

orbital

said on

October 15, 2008

I'm confused by (at least) two of these questions:

我们只顾着说话，坐 ____ 站了。快下车吧。

The correct answer here is supposed to be 了. But why? I can see the symmetry between ___ 了___了, but don't understand what the entire sentence is supposed to mean.

One more question -- why is 过 the correct answer in the sentence 上个月他去过上海. I understand that 过 tells us the events are completed, but how do we know that he came back? Wouldn't 上个月他去了上海 be equally valid?

leanne

said on

October 15, 2008

1. To my understanding, 过 is more a verb than a surfix. 过 means pass. The 了at the end of this sentense shows past tense.

We need expert to judge my guess.

2. 上个月他去过上海 the emphasis is on the place. He could have been to other places than just Shanghai.

3.上个月他去了上海 the emphasis is on the action. What he did was going to Shanghai.

Any other ideas?

Echo

said on

October 16, 2008

orbital&leanne,

"坐过站" is a fixed phrase which means you just missed your station--"you have just passed your station".

About the second question--"verb+过"indicates something experienced, and has relation with past time. This action does not last till now."verb+了"indicates that something has been finished. The time can be past , and can be present and in the future. If the action happened in the past, it may last till now. You may notice that we have some similar questions in the test too.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

imron

said on

October 16, 2008

12/15. Although 九月一到 is surely just as valid as 九月一过, at least for those of us who come from warmer countries and have different concept of when it starts to get colder :-)

Echo

said on

October 17, 2008

@imron,

We were planing to give those friends who were/are in Beijing some special 照顾...

For us native 北京人儿, the weather is still a bit hot at the beginning of Sept. Plus 秋老虎, we usually take October or the end of Sept as the beginning of the fall.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

imron

said on

October 17, 2008

Haha, I am in Beijing. I meant that from growing up in a warmer country (Australia), my definition of cold is going to be different. So when I see 在北京，九月一过,天气就渐渐凉起来了, I think no, the weather started getting colder in September already.

trevelyan

said on

October 17, 2008

that's a good point, imron. i don't know if the HSK has this sort of cultural bias towards the Chinese worldview (Echo and Katharine will...), but we should be careful about these sorts of things.

I also got the 坐过站 question wrong, incidentally, although the right answer seems so obvious in retrospect.

imron

said on

October 17, 2008

The other two questions I mucked up, were the 看都看了, and 慢着点儿开车. Actually, I initially put the correct answer for both of them but then changed my mind at the last minute 囧 I blame it on not ever learning grammar.