Is “了(le)” All Used In the Past Tense? | “了”都用于过去时吗？

“了”在中文句子中很常见，但是很多人都不知道怎么用它。“了”都表示过去的意思吗？下面这些句子中都有“了”，但是它们的时态却不一样。今天，就让我们一起来看看“了”的简单用法。

“le” is very common in Chinese sentences, but many foreigners don’t know how to use it. Does the word “le” always mean the past? The following sentences all have “le”, but their tenses are different. Today, let’s take a look at the simple use of “le”.

“V+了+（O）”中的“了”经常用于过去。特别是句中没有明确的时间词时，我们都知道用上“了”后，指的就是过去的事。

The “le” in “V+ + (O)” is often used in the past tense. Especially when there is no definite time word in the sentence, we all know that when we use “le”, we refer to the past.

Wánɡ xiānshenɡ qù le Běijīnɡ.

王先生去了北京。

Mr. Wang went to Beijing.

加上“了”后就表示王老师去北京这件事已经发生了。

The addition of “le” means that it has already happened that Mr. Wang went to Beijing.

但是，我们不能因为这样就认为“了”就表示过去。

However, we should not think that “le” means the past.

Mínɡtiān xià le bān wǒ jiù qù zhǎo nǐ.

明天下了班我就去找你。

I’ll see you after work tomorrow.

Xiàwǔ xià le kè wǒ jiù qù cāochǎnɡ , zánmen cāochǎnɡ jiàn!

下午下了课我就去操场，咱们操场见！

I’ll go to the playground after class this afternoon. See you at the playground!

上面这两个句子的时态都表示将来。

The tenses of the two sentences above are for the future.

要注意，在用于将来这种情况下，句中一般都会出现两个动作，“了”放在第一个动作后面，表示第一个动作完成后就做第二个动作。

Please note that in future situations, there are usually two actions in a sentence. The word “le” is placed after the first action to indicate that the second action should be taken after the first action.

xià bān   qù zhǎo nǐ

下班    去找你

①            ②

after work     come to see you

xià le bān qù zhǎo nǐ

→    下了班去找你

come to see you after work

可见，“了”还表示完成。只不过由于已完成的动作常常是已经发生了的，所以“了”常常跟过去的时间发生关系。但这并不等于“了”都用于过去，它既可以用于过去，也可以用于将来。

It can be seen that “le” also means finished. It is only because the completed action is often already happened, so that the “le” is often related to the past time. But that doesn’t mean it’s all about the past. So the “le”  can be used in the future tense as well as the past tense.