How long an action lasts

Structure Verb + (了) + duration

The duration of an action ("I studied for THREE YEARS") goes AFTER the verb, not before: 我学了三年中文. This clashes with English word order. Here the duration block works like a complement of the verb. With an object, you usually repeat the verb or place the duration before the object.

Examples

我wǒ学xué了le三sān年nián中zhōng文wén。
I studied Chinese for three years.
他tā睡shuì了le八bā个ge小xiǎo时shí。
He slept for eight hours.
我wǒ等děng了le半bàn个ge小xiǎo时shí。
I waited for half an hour.

This point and the other 370, with audio on every example, inside Wanyu.

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