Past Continuous

[Entropy_Rising]

I'm not learning Chinese formally in any setting right now, so a lot of the grammatical issues I deal with come up when I'm conversing with someone and I realize I'm not sure how to say what I want to say. Also, frustratingly enough many of the things I don't know how to say, somehow intuitively feel like things I studied back in college and just forgot over the years.

This time it's what I think (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm no linguist) is called the "past continuous." It came up the other day when someone asked me what I was doing at a certain time, and I wanted to say "I was eating." I guess my question is, how does one say that?

Does one use a time qualifier, like "At that time"?

那时候，我吃饭

Does 了 play a role?

那时候我吃饭了

Can we omit the 那时候？

我吃饭了 (When I say this, I feel like I'm saying "I'm eating (right now)," but that may just me).

Despite Mandarin having some relatively easy and forgiving grammar, it's always been a problem with me. Thanks in advance!

[skylee]

Consider 那時候我在吃飯.

If the timing is clearly understood in the context then 那時候 can be omitted.

[Entropy_Rising]

Thanks. So in this case the 在 would be the key grammatical thingy that's indicating the whole "that's what was happening" aspect, right?

[cdn_in_bj]

Thanks. So in this case the 在 would be the key grammatical thingy that's indicating the whole "that's what was happening" aspect, right?

That is correct!

[Quest]

No, both 那时候 and 在 indicate that aspect.

[Entropy_Rising]

No, both 那时候 and 在 indicate that aspect.

But Skylee said the 那时候 could be omitted if the context were clear and if you look at the situation that brought about this question in my OP the context is pretty clear when it involves answering the question "Where were you at such-and-such a time."

[muyongshi]

Well it can if I asked you 你当时在做什么，你那时候在做什么 then you could just answer 在吃饭 but as quest pointed out it's not the 在 alone that indicates the time, you have to have the 那时候 somewhere. It may not have to be in your answer but you have to have it.

[Entropy_Rising]

I understand that 那时候 establishes the time period, my question was about what establishes the "past continuous" aspect, as in "At that time, I was eating" vs. "At that time, we ate" (in some sort of hypothetical context where a person is talking about perhaps his family's past when they had more abundant food, or perhaps a past habitual action where the speaker is saying in the past the did something habitually every day). Both sentences would use 那时候 but the 在 is what establishes the "past continuous" aspect I was inquiring about in the OP, the Chinese equivalent to using "I was doing something." Or am I missing something?

[roddy]

I think you're getting to hooked up on looking for a past continuous aspect, as Chinese doesn't have a tense that corresponds. You get the past bit as you usually do in Chinese - context, and time words like 上周二，昨天，我小时,etc. The continuous aspect in English (be it past, present or future) would be translated by using （正）在 and / or 着（zhe）

Some random Googled examples:

那时候我正在试图背诵那个人的号码

我想，她在看着我，不行，我得爬起来

[muyongshi]

That example changes the whole playing field. In chinese it is all about time words and unless you specify a stop or a change, anything can represent a "continuous". You have to not think in English when you approach Chinese grammar.

LIke if you were saying we had a good crop that year so we ate well...我们当年的收获很丰盛，一家人吃得很好。 The "continuous" is established by the fact that you say "that year". If you want to be even more general you can just replace 当年 with 当时. It's all about the time words.

For habitual you would say 我曾经怎么怎么怎么...and adding words like 常常，经常，老是 etc

[skylee]

LIke if you were saying we had a good crop that year so we ate well...我们当年的收获很丰盛，一家人吃得很好。 The "continuous" is established by the fact that you say "that year".

Sorry but where is the "continuous"? I think it is simple past tense in the example.

[muyongshi]

The point is that in you don't have to have an actual "continuous" because the example refers to the fact that you for that year all ate good, no? It's implied...

If you really want to make it feel like a continuous then add 一直. 我们一直吃得很好. But it is not necessary...

[roddy]

Grammatically your example is not continuous, it's simple. It might take place over an extended period of time, but that's irrelevant to the grammatical aspect.

[Guoke]

I don't quite understand how some people have come to the conclusion that Mandarin does not have tenses that correspond to English tenses. Mandarin does have tenses. Every language does.

I'm not an expert on grammar. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

正and/or着are used to form both present and past continuous tenses.

e.g. be eating = 在吃 / be drinking = 在喝 / be writing a letter = 在写信

A: 小明在做什么？ (What is Xiaoming doing?)

B: 他在写信。(He is writing a letter.)

B could have answered in 3 different ways:

1. 他在写信。

(He is writing a letter. This is the so called 'complete sentence' in English - with the subject, the verbs, the object and the tense.)

2. 在写信。(Is writing a letter. The subject他(小明) is omitted. Why? The subject is obvious from the context.)

3. 写信。

(Write a letter. Now, even the 'tense' is omitted or reduced to the simplest form - 写. Why? Isn't obvious from the context that '写' refers to '在写' - the continuous tense?

This is Chinese grammar!

Anything that is obvious from the context can be omitted or simplified.

I once read an article about Chinese grammar and the writer described Chinese grammar as 'Minimalist grammar’. It really sums up Chinese Grammar, doesn't it?

One more example:

A: 你今早在菜市场买了什么？

B: (possible answers:...)

1. 我今早在菜市场买了一些水果。

2. 我买了一些水果。

3. 买了 一些水果。

4. 一些水果。 or simply

5. 水果。

In Mandarin:

A sentence = a sentence or a phrase or a character

[roddy]

I'm no expert either, but for me

正and/or着are used to form both present and past continuous tenses.

isn't entirely accurate. 正（在）and/or着 are used to form the continuous aspect - 'this is something that was/is/will be ongoing at the point of reference, but they are nothing to do with the actual location in time - which is tense. Obviously Chinese can talk about the past, present and future, but I don't think you can say it uses grammatical tense to do so as English does - it uses, if you like, lexical tense (a phrase I just made up, but according to Google others have beaten me to it)