Chinese HSK4 Grammar Points

“Again” in the past with “又”

沉思😔

Any time you want to express that something has happened in the past or will happen again, you will need to use 又. The basic structure is 又…了. A very simple example of this grammar structure is 他又做了 tā yòu zùo le, or “he did it again”. In english we generally put this tense qualifier after the verb, but in Chinese it comes before, sandwiched with a 了 to signify a completed action.

For example:

他又去香港了。

Tā yòu qù xiānggǎng le.

He went to Hong Kong again.

or

你又迟到了。

Nǐ yòu chídào le.

You’re late again.

Using 又 in the negative form.

This is pretty self explanatory, simply add a negating character (不 or 没) directly following yòu. While in english we sometimes use again to mean “never again” (they didn’t eat pork again) in Chinese “again” has no such meaning.

For example:

他又没来了。

Tā yòu méi lái le.

He didn’t come again.

or

我们又不吃西餐了。

Wǒ mén yòu bù chī xīcānle.

We didn’t have western food again.

Talking about predicted repitition.

Even is something did not happen in the past but feels familiar (as in you know it will happen again) you can use 又。

For example:

又来了。

Yòu lái le.

Here it comes again…

or

今天又要加班了 ！

Jīntiān yòu yào jiābān le!

We’re going to work late today, again!

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