I am wearing - in Chinese

[jennielo]

Hi, i'm currently a Beginners Mandardin Class Teacher for a college, i'd just like to clarify a few things.

To say I am wearing a black coat today, in chinese is it important to add the 了 - I.E showing the action has been completed, or is it acceptable to put,

我今天穿黑大衣（as opposed to 我今天穿了黑大衣）

[daydreamer]

我今天穿着黑大衣. may be better...

这里的"着"表示一种状态.

[annann]

我今天穿了黑大衣 is also right, I often say the sentence like this

[nipponman]

I think 我今天穿了黑大衣 is right, but it is not right for the translation. I don't think it has the same meaning as 我今天穿着黑大衣.了 here is a perfective aspect marker and therefore shows a completed action done in the past. while 着 is an imperfective aspect marker that shows an uncompleted action taking place in the present. So, based on this (and please correct me if I am wrong...) I would translate both sentences as

1. "Today I wore a black coat." and 2. "Today I am wearing a black coat." respectively.

And as daydreamer put it, the着 here shows a state.

[Qin chen]

我觉得 “今天我穿着一件黑色大衣”更好."was wearing"表示的是一种状态，应该用“着”。而“了”表示完成，很少表示状态。

[Qin chen]

我觉得 “今天我穿着一件黑色大衣”更好."was wearing"表示的是一种状态，应该用“着”。而“了”表示完成，很少表示状态。

[nipponman]

Qin Chen, if you say今天我穿着一件黑色大衣, don't you have to use 的 after 黑色? I was taught that it is not good chinese to say 2-syllable adjectives without 的 when modifing something (not to say your chinese is bad or anything

[Altair]

As for the early discussion, I basically agree with what Nipponman and Chin Chen have said, but wanted to amplify on this sort of often confusing issue.

Imagine if a friend saw you for the first time of the day and said: "Wait, something looks different about you. What is new?" This question is cast as a question about present facts, and yet it can be answered with reference to a past action. You can reply: "I put on a black coat this morning/today." Technically, this sentence does not indicate whether or not you still have the coat on. Perhaps you put it on for just a moment to see what it looked like and it made you so happy and glowing that your friend noticed the difference in you outlook. Either way, this statement of past action can be used to explain why you might have the coat on before the questioner's eyes in the present or what else is different about your appearance in the present.

English speakers naturally tend to feel that tense is more precise than it actually is and think that all the ambiguity exists on the side of Chinese. This is in fact not the case. Chinese is more specific about certain things than English and better about relating them to certain language situations. The problem is that English speakers are not used to being attuned to the particular nuances and rely on other clues to fill on the gaps in English.

If we go back to the original question, "how does one say: 'I am wearing a black coat today'?" and want to take an analytical approach, we can start with 今天我穿一件黑色大衣 and ask whether 了 or another particle is necessary. In this case, 了 would be necessary if this sentence describes the end point of the verbal action. In this case, however, it is intended to indicate a persisting state and so does not indicate an end point. As a result, 了 is not permitted.

Is another particle necessary? Yes, because 穿 basically means to "thrust through" and does not readily indicate a state. Its base meaning is "put on" rather than to "wear." To help it acquire the meaning of a persistent state it needs 着. In this case, the nuance it adds is that a past action was engaged in that has left related evidence of a persistent state, like the difference between 坐 ("take a seat") and 坐着 ("be in a sitting position").

The sentence should therefore be 今天我穿着一件黑色大衣. Note, however, that this sentence could also mean "I was wearing a black coat today" and indicate the past. Chinese does not need to specify a timeframe if this is clear from the context. (Note that statements about the future are a little different, because they are often predictions, which have their own rules.) 着 simply indicates the existence of a state, not when the state exists. If there is a need to stress that the timeframe is the present, a word like 现在 ("now") could be used instead of 今天 ("today"),

To translate the meaning "I wore/put on a black coat today," which could also fit the speech context as I outlined above and as Annann correctly suggested, 着 is not possible, since no persistent state is indicated. Since we are talking about an action or process, the question of 了 reasserts itself. The presence of such a specific expression as 一件黑色大衣 ("a black coat") clearly measures the output of the verb and indicates an end point to the action. As a result, 了 is necessary in this meaning. (Most grammars talk about whether the action is completed, but I think this is actually a misleading way to look at it and incorrect. Not all 了 sentences really indicate completed action in a strong way, and not all completed actions require 了.)

Note that the timeframe of the Chinese is still a little ambiguous from the English standpoint. In a slighly different context, the Chinese sentence 今天我穿了一件黑色大衣 could equally be translated: "I had put on a black coat today" or as "I have put on a black coat today." Imbedded in a future sentence, it could also be translated as "After I put on a black coat today, (I will)...."

Lastly, if we are talking about some vague speech context, like "I wore/put on a black coat all last winter," the issue of endpoints and states loses prominence, since arguably all the aspects of putting on and keeping on the coat are being referred to. In this case, Chinese also leaves the sentence vague, by adding no aspect particle and leaving the sentence as something like 过年整个冬天我穿一件黑色大衣. (I hope I have this translation right. I am also somewhat less sure of this particular point than of my other points.)

Notice that the mere presence of 一件黑色大衣 does not force the addition of 了, one has to analyze the entire speech context rather than look only for mechanical clues in the sentence structure or objective facts about what is being described. Why the facts are being described in the speech context is an important part of figuring out when to use these particles.