Mandarin Aspect Markers 了, 过, and 着
Mandarin does not conjugate verbs for tense. Aspect markers show whether an action is complete, experienced, or ongoing.
About the author
Luke McLaughlin created Constructing Language after living in Japan and later learning Mandarin Chinese from scratch. The lessons, games, and guides are built from that first-hand learner experience and checked against native-speaker course work with Hiro for Japanese and Xiang for Mandarin Chinese.
- Lived in Japan and studied Japanese through immersion and structured self-study.
- Learned Mandarin Chinese from scratch as an adult learner.
- Created the Construction Method: audio-first sentence building, grammar graphics, and active recall.
- Built Japanese course material with Hiro and Mandarin course material with Xiang, both native-speaker collaborators.
了 shows completion or change
了 often marks a completed action or a new situation. It is not simply a past-tense ending, which is why literal translation causes confusion.
过 shows experience
过 tells us that something has happened before as an experience. It is common in sentences about places visited, foods tried, or actions done at least once.
着 shows ongoing state
着 often marks a continuing state after an action, such as something being open, sitting, wearing, or held.