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Lesson
11, Pattern 3: Imminent ActionFor indicating that an action is
going to happen soon, the "imminent action" pattern is used. You have
seen a few examples in the text, but the pattern hasn't been introduced as such.
The examples below may be helpful. Note that when there is a specific time mentioned,
most native speakers will also use 就.
| S |
(Time Word and) Adv. |
要 | V | (Obj) | 了 | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 李友 |
要
|
走 | 了 | Li You is leaving. Li You is about to leave. |
||
| 李友 | 明天 就 |
要
|
走 | 了 | Li You is leaving tomorrow. | |
| 李友 | 現在 就 |
要
|
走 | 了 | Li You is leaving now. | |
| 李友 | 就 |
要
|
做 | 飯 | 了 | Li You is about to cook the meal. |
| 我 | 快 |
要
|
走 | 了 | I am leaving shortly. I am just about to leave. |
|
| 快 |
|
上 | 課 | 了 | It's almost time for class.
Class will start soon. |
|
| 我 |
該
(g`i have to) |
上 | 課 | 了 | I have to go to class (now). |
Note that 要 may be omitted as long as there is some word to indicate that the action is yet to take place. 快 indicates that the action will soon take place, while 該 tells the listener that the action must take place. If a time word is used, it may be placed either before or after the subject (noun) and 快 is not used.
If, instead of a time word, an expression such as 還有五分鐘 ("there are still five minutes") precedes the verb, it may be used with 就要 to indicate that there is still a certain period of time that must pass before the imminent action will occur. The time period may precede or follow the subject. For example:
| (S) | 還有Time Period | (S) | 就要 | V (Obj) | 了 | Note: Here the time period must be short. |
| 還有半個小時 | 我 | 就要 | 上課 | 了 | I still have half and hour before class begins. | |
| 我 | 還有十分鐘 | 就要 | 走 | 了 | There are still ten minutes before I leave. |
Questions are constructed by adding 嗎 to the end of the sentence and keeping 了. Negative replies consist of 沒有. Examples follow.
| A: 飛機就要起飛了嗎？
(起飛 means for an airplane "to take off") |
A: Is the plane about to take off? |
| B: 沒有。 三點鐘(才)起飛。 | B: No. It takes off at 3:00.
B: No, it doesn't take off until 3:00. |
| A: 他快要走了嗎？ | A: Is he leaving soon? |
| B: 沒有， 他不走了。 | B: No. He's not leaving after all.
[Note: here the 了 indicates a change of state. Originally he was going to leave, but now he's changed his plans and won't leave after all.] |
| A: 他就要去上課了嗎？ | A: Is he on his way to class? |
| B: 沒有， 他今天不上課。 | B: No, he's not going to class today. |
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