<blockquote>
  <p>(1) Without time nouns (e.g: 昨天) how can I know these are completed actions?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Chinese language doesn't use tenses like English does, therefore, without "昨天", "我买了书就回家" could mean, "I went home after I had bought the book" or "I will go home after I've bought the book" In both cases, the action "买" is completed (in the past or in the future)</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>(2) Can I put another 了 at the end of sentence to point out completed actions? </p>
</blockquote>

<p>Yes you can -- If you treat the second 了 as an aspect mark, "我买了书就回家了" would indicate both '买书' and  '回家' are completed action. However, the 了 at the end of a sentence will be treated as final particle most of the time. The only way to remove the ambiguity is insert 了 between 回家 and write "我买了书就回了家". But having two aspect marker '了' in the same sentence make it awkward to read. Native Chinese would avoid that and rewrite sentence to "我买完书就回了家" , But the best way is to put in time reference "我昨天买了书就回家了" or "我买书之后就回了家" (<em>since you bought book before went home, the first 了 is redundant</em>) to indicate all verbs in the sentence are completed</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-18T10:01:03.133Z
2020-04-18T10:13:34.093Z
2020-04-18T10:13:34.093Z
Tang Ho
<p>In Chinese language, we don't have the concept of tense. You can find that our verb don't have variation according to different time. We have to use time or other component to indicate whether things are completed or when things are done. For example 我做這件事, 我做完了這件事. We use 了 to indicate that the action is completed. Note that we use the same verb 做 in both of the sentence. In English, you can use did or have done to indicate tense. While It don't happened on Chinese we don't have past tense form of verb 做. So we still use 做 and add other component to indicate time or whether things are completed or not.</p>

<p>If you don't want to indicate time explicitly, you can use 了 to indicate you have completed the action. In this example, you can say 我買了書就回家了. This example exhibit the usage 了. 了 is used indicate 回家 is completed.</p>

<p>完 can be used on this purpose too. You can say 我買完書就回家了.</p>

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2020-04-18T09:53:38.323Z
2020-04-18T09:58:45.360Z
2020-04-18T09:58:45.360Z
000
<p>I just find out two circumstances that "了...就" construction is used. </p>

<pre><code>(1) 昨天，我买了书就回家。(Yesterday, after I had bought the book, I came back home) - COMPLETED ACTIONS
(2) 我买了书就回家。(After buying the book, immediately I will come home) - ABOUT-TO-HAPPEN ACTIONS
</code></pre>

<p>What I wonder is, in the first situation:</p>

<p>(1) Without time nouns (e.g: 昨天) how can I know these are completed actions?</p>

<p>(2) Can I put another 了 at the end of sentence to point out completed actions? </p>

<grammar><meaning><sentence-structure>
How to know "了...就" indicating completed actions
# How to know "了...就" indicating completed actions

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-04-18)

I just find out two circumstances that "了...就" construction is used.

```
(1) 昨天，我买了书就回家。(Yesterday, after I had bought the book, I came back home) - COMPLETED ACTIONS
(2) 我买了书就回家。(After buying the book, immediately I will come home) - ABOUT-TO-HAPPEN ACTIONS

```

What I wonder is, in the first situation:

(1) Without time nouns (e.g: 昨天) how can I know these are completed actions?

(2) Can I put another 了 at the end of sentence to point out completed actions?

**Tags:** grammar, meaning, sentence-structure


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-04-18. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

> (1) Without time nouns (e.g: 昨天) how can I know these are completed actions?

Chinese language doesn't use tenses like English does, therefore, without "昨天", "我买了书就回家" could mean, "I went home after I had bought the book" or "I will go home after I've bought the book" In both cases, the action "买" is completed (in the past or in the future)

> (2) Can I put another 了 at the end of sentence to point out completed actions?

Yes you can -- If you treat the second 了 as an aspect mark, "我买了书就回家了" would indicate both '买书' and '回家' are completed action. However, the 了 at the end of a sentence will be treated as final particle most of the time. The only way to remove the ambiguity is insert 了 between 回家 and write "我买了书就回了家". But having two aspect marker '了' in the same sentence make it awkward to read. Native Chinese would avoid that and rewrite sentence to "我买完书就回了家" , But the best way is to put in time reference "我昨天买了书就回家了" or "我买书之后就回了家" (*since you bought book before went home, the first 了 is redundant*) to indicate all verbs in the sentence are completed


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### Answer by username_2 on 2020-04-18. Score: 1

In Chinese language, we don't have the concept of tense. You can find that our verb don't have variation according to different time. We have to use time or other component to indicate whether things are completed or when things are done. For example 我做這件事, 我做完了這件事. We use 了 to indicate that the action is completed. Note that we use the same verb 做 in both of the sentence. In English, you can use did or have done to indicate tense. While It don't happened on Chinese we don't have past tense form of verb 做. So we still use 做 and add other component to indicate time or whether things are completed or not.

If you don't want to indicate time explicitly, you can use 了 to indicate you have completed the action. In this example, you can say 我買了書就回家了. This example exhibit the usage 了. 了 is used indicate 回家 is completed.

完 can be used on this purpose too. You can say 我買完書就回家了.


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