🇨🇳 Chinese (Mandarin)
中文 • Han
Talking about the past (yesterday, earlier, last week)
A beginner‑friendly approach to past tense: start with one safe past pattern and reuse it.
The strategy
Don’t try to master every tense. Start with one common past pattern from real sentences.
- Use time words (yesterday/last week) to make meaning clear.
- Copy a native past pattern and reuse it with different verbs.
我买了水。
Wǒ mǎi le shuǐ
I bought water.
我今天去。
Wǒ jīntiān qù
I go today.
我在这里。
Wǒ zài zhèlǐ
I am here.
我想要水。
Wǒ xiǎng yào shuǐ
I want water.
我不懂。
Wǒ bù dǒng
I don't understand.
你会说英语吗？
Nǐ huì shuō Yīngyǔ ma
Do you speak English?
厕所在哪里？
Cèsuǒ zài nǎlǐ
Where is the bathroom?
这是我的朋友。
Zhè shì wǒ de péngyou
This is my friend.
Mini‑quiz
Mini-quiz
1/8 • Score: 0
Which sentence matches “I bought water.”?