Learn about a future tense in Chinese
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Intro |
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| Hi everybody! Yinru here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I’ll answer some of your most common Chinese questions. |
| The Question |
| The question for this lesson is: Does Chinese have a future tense? |
| Explanation |
| Just like there’s no past tense in Chinese, there’s no future tense in Chinese either. You can indicate something is going to happen in the future by using the auxiliary words 会 (huì ), 要 (yào), and/or add future time phrases, like 明天 (míngtiān “tomorrow”), 下个月(xià ge yuè, “next month”), and so on. |
| 会 (huì) can be translated as “will” or “will expect to.” In comparison, 要 (yào) indicates one’s intention, like “to be going to” or “to want to.” Let’s look at some examples: |
| 明晚我会去看电影。(Míngwǎn wǒ huì qù kàn diànyǐng. “Tomorrow night, I will go see a movie.”) |
| 你要跟我一起去吗？(Nǐ yào gēn wǒ yìqǐ qù ma? “Do you want to go with me?”) |
| 下个星期我会去上海。(Xià ge xīngqī wǒ huì qù Shànghǎi. “I will go to Shanghai next week.”) |
| To make negative forms, just put a 不 bù in front of 会 (huì) and 要(yào) to make it 不会 (búhuì)，不要 (búyào). For example: |
| 她不会喜欢这个地方的。(Tā búhuì xǐhuān zhège dìfang de. “She won’t like this place.”) |
| 我不要跟你一起去上海。(Wǒ búyào gēn nǐ yìqǐ qù Shànghǎi. “I am not going to go to Shanghai with you.”) |
| Some more time phrases expressing the future include 下星期三 (xià xīngqī sān “next Wednesday”), 后天 (hòutiān “the day after tomorrow”), 明年 (míngnián “next year”), 以后 (yǐhòu “in the future”), etc. |
| 我下星期三会给你打电话。(Wǒ xià xīng qī sān huì gěi nǐ dǎ diànhuà. “Next Wednesday I will give you a call.”) |
| 你明年要毕业了吗？(Nǐ míngnián yào bìyè le ma? “Are you going to graduate next year?”) |
| 以后我不会再来了。(Yǐhòu wǒ búhuì zài lái le. “I will not come again in the future.”) |
Outro |
| How was it? Pretty interesting, right? |
| Do you have any more questions? Leave them in the comments below, and I’ll try to answer them! |
| 我们下期再见! Wǒmen xià qī zàijiàn! Bye! |
Comments
HideWhat Chinese learning question do you have?
Hello Veronica,
Thank you for your comment. 会 means more like something is expected to happen, 要 is more like someone intends to do something. Yes you may use either one when asking questions, depending on how you want the question to sound like.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hi
I didn't understand the difference between 会 and 要 and may i use it both for question asking
Thank you
Hello Hank Harwell,
Thank you for your comment. The 的 at the end of a 会...的 sentence is a modal particle, it is used to indicate the speaker's certainty. Sentences are correct with or without the ending 的.
e.g. 她不会告诉你。Tā bù huì gàosu nǐ. and 她不会告诉你的。Tā bù huì gàosu nǐ de. (She won't tell you.)
Let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
in one of the dialogues you stress that 要yao comes with 了le as a sentence final. Whereas 会 futures end with 的。This for hui with de really seems to indicate potential. Whatever the semantics, this pattern is hardly reflected except in the one dialogue (#47, Hitting the Telephone in China). What am I missing?
你好 Byron,
Thank you so much for your positive message! 😇❤️️
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
We wish you good luck with your language studies.
Kind regards,
雷文特
Team ChineseClass101.com
Yinru is an outstanding teacher!
你好 robert groulx,
谢谢 for posting and studying with us. If you have any questions, please let us know.😄
Kind regards,
雷文特 (Levente)
Team ChineseClass101.com
thank you for the lesson transcript
(Wǒ xià xīng qī sān huì gěi nǐ dǎ diànhuà. “Next Wednesday I will give you a call.”)
robert
Hello 农三世,
Thank you for your comment.
Yes 会 can also be used in questions. For example you can ask 你会跟我一起去北京吗？Will you go to Beijing with me?
Thank you for learning with us, let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
Is Yao only used in questions with a future tense or can Hui be used in questions as well? All the examples in the video have Yao being used with questions.