Ni hao ND. That’s a very good question. “le” in Mandarin is used to indicate the past tense. I give you an example, have a look the following sentences:

ni qu na li? and ni qu le na li?. The first means “where are you going”? but the second one is “Where did you go”? Now you can see the importance of “le”, which makes the meaning very different.

But why there is no “le” in the sentence “zuo tian wo qu Shanghai”? because there is a time word “zuo tian” in this sentence. It already indicates this happened yesterday. This is one of difference between Mandarin and English. There is no past tense for verbs in Mandarin. When you add time words, you don’t need to add “le”. So both of them “zuo tian ni qu na li” and “zuo tian ni qu le na li” are correct.

I suggest you always add “le” when you mean past tense.

Hope it helps!

Bu ke qi! ND.

Ni hao Pooshybooshy.

Actually is not because a question. You’re right, “shi” means are, but “zai” means “be/at/in”. In English, you can say “where are you”, but we don’’t say “ni shi na li?” in Mandarin. Or you can say “I’m home”, but we don’t say “wo shi jia” in Mandarin. Instead, we say:

Ni zai na li? = where are you?

Wo zai jia = I’m home

So “zai” is used as are in above sentences, but it’s not equal to “shi”. For example, you can say “wo shi zhong guo ren(I’m a Chinese)”, but you can’t say “wo zai zhong guo ren”.

“zai” is only used to indicate the place where something/somebody is/are.

You got it? Let me know if still have question.

You totally got it, Pooshybooshy. Cool!

Hi Dave. I appreciate! Actually it should be the third tone. This is an editing mistake that we didn’t noticed. Thank you very much!!

Ni hao Niisan! very good questions!

Because “na li” is already a question word, so you don’t need to put “ma” at the end of a sentence.

Another example:

Zhe shi shen me? = What’s this?

“Shen me” is a question word, so it’s wrong to say “zhe shi shen me ma?”

wow ni hoa benny this is going to come in ver handaly thanks!

Wei! Wo ba hui shuo ha nyu… im learning mandarin on the internet because there is no one that can teach me personally… Now, how would i know the correct intonation and pronunciations of the chinese words?

xie xie!

nin hao! wo shi meiguo ren. I spent so much money trying to learn Chinese and I couldn’t find anyone to teach me because it’s America and we all speak English and expect everyelse to also. I’ve learn more in the two days I’ve spent in your land than on months with the “leading language learning product.” xiexieni

hey nice one Benny, good luck with the site, It’s a great tool for those of us who are eager to learn Mandarin. Wo xuexi Hanyu le yi yue, In class we were taught Ni zai Nar (Nar using 3rd tone) but you use Nǐ zài nǎ lǐ. Is your way more common?

Ni Hao Pert Ilagan!

Thanks for your comment and query on www.askbennychinese.com.

We’ve amended the bug and have corrected the BCTV Video!

Hope this helps and Happy Learning!

Zai Jian!

Benny

Learn Chinese, Learn Mandarin from AskBenny

nin hao benney,I know you from youtube..My English is not well,but I wanna learn Chinese ‘cause I know someone..He’s Chinese boy.He’s very kind.U know.He teaching me in English,so I wanna learn Chinese for him.And you’re my chinese teacher. xie xie ^.

plesae could you give some chinese tv programs because i would like to learn this language

Hi Benny, thx!

This site is very cool!

xie xie ni :)