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Duration of an action is discussed
in Lesson 13. Here is a chart showing the units of time for duration.
Expressions of time-duration require a Number-MW-Noun
structure. Note that 天
and
年 serve
as their own measures,
so do not take the measure word 個. Note
that 半 may
be used before the measure word to indicate
"half" if the total time is only half that unit of measure.
| Unit of
Duration Time-measure |
English |
| 五分鐘 | five minutes |
| 一個小時 一個鐘頭 |
one hour |
| 一天 | one day |
| 三個星期 | three weeks |
| 一個學期 | one academic term (semester or quarter) |
| 一個月 | one month |
| 四年 | four years |
| 半天 | half a day also used to indicate an indefinite long period of time |
| 半分鐘 半個小時 半個月 半年 |
half a minute half an hour half a month half a year |
|
多久? 多長時間? |
How long a time? How many minutes? How many hours? How many days? How many years? |
If the total amount is one or more unit of the measure word plus a little more, a word such as 多 or 半 may be placed after the measure word.
There are two basic sentence patterns for time-duration. In both of them, you may think of the duration of time as a special way to quantify the object. In some cases, there may be no object. Statements are usually in the affirmative, and questions are made by using one of the patterns in the last row above (such as 幾 with the measure word) or adding 嗎.
|
S
|
(V-O)
|
V
|
了
|
Duration
|
English
|
| 他 | 吃飯 | 吃 | 了 | 一個鐘頭 | He ate for an hour. |
| 你 | 聽錄音 | 聽 | 了 | 幾個小時? | How many hours did you listen to tapes? |
| 你 | 跳舞 | 跳 | 了 | 三個小時嗎? | Did you dance for three hours? This is a specific way of asking "how long?" |
| 你 | 跳舞 | 跳 | 了 | 多久? | How long did you dance? This is a general way of asking "how long?" |
| 我 | 睡 | 了 | 半個小時 | I slept for half an hour. If there is no need for the V-O part, you may omit it. |
|
S
|
V
|
了
|
Duration
|
(的)
O
|
English
|
| 下 | 了 | 兩天 | 雨 | It rained for two days. Here no subject is needed. |
|
| 今天他 | 上 | 了 | 五個多鐘頭 | 的課 | Today he attended class for more than five hours. |
| 你 | 跳 | 了 | 三個小時 | 的舞嗎? | Did you dance for three hours? If you specify a time-duration, you may make a 嗎-question |
| 哥哥 | 學 | 了 | 幾年 | 中文? | How many years did brother study
Chinese? This is a specific way of asking "how long?" |
| 哥哥 | 學 | 了 | 一年 | 中文 | Brother studied Chinese for a year. |
| 我 | 睡 | 了 | 半個小時 | (的覺 |
I slept for half an hour. Here the object can be omitted. |
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If you can't read the Chinese characters, install Microsoft traditional Chinese font, then set browser to view character set "Big 5 (traditional Chinese)."
This page
created by Mary Jacob 
