where do i put the le?

[chris.]

I'm not too sure on where to put le 了

Like if i want to say "what have you been doing?"

where would i put le 了in "ni zai zuo shen me? 你在做什么?

I guess I'm more asking where it is wrong to put le 了, if you could tell me where NOT to put le 了 it would be great.

[smithsgj]

I don't think you'd put it in that sentence because 在 zai gives it durative aspect i.e the action is ongoing. 'le' is normally used to indicate a change of state, or to indicate perfective aspect (i.e. the action has completed)

Le goes after the verb or at the end of the utterance or sentence. I'll leave it to the native speakers to come up with good exmaples of both usage.

[Quest]

"What have you been doing?"

你做了些什么?

or 一直以来你都在做什么呢？

[Tsunku]

Where NOT to put the le? Don't put it before the verb. From there, the rules get more complicated. le is used for different patterns. For your example above you have some good answers already.

[trooper]

I'm not too sure on where to put le 了

Like if i want to say "what have you been doing?"

where would i put le 了in "ni zai zuo shen me? 你在做什么?

I agree that I don't think 了 should be used here. I've a question of my own. If you wanted to use a particle, could you use 呢? As in asking the question 你在做什么呢? Does this function as the question "What are you doing right now?" or does it only function as "You're doing something right now"?

[chris.]

ok, thanks all.

I don't really have too much of a clue about chinese grammar, only been learning for around 4 months or so. I will have to nag my chinese teachers about 了and thanks for your input.