(ii) nouns that occur after ( ) I wrote a letter.
le with some kind of extension:
wi xig le (yc) fbng xìn
15 Verbs and aspect markers
ta mfi le hgn dud pínggui He bought a lot of apples. As we can see from the sentences in (ii), xìn is modified by ( ) (yc)fbng and pínggui by hgn dud. If le is followed by an unmodified noun as in (i), for example: * wi xig le xìn or * ta mfi le pínggui, the sentence will sound incomplete and it cannot stand on its own. Grammatically, there are two ways to make such a sentence sound complete: one is to end the sentence with the particle le; the other is to add another clause to round it off: 1 Add the sentence particle
le
wi xig le xìn le wi mfi le pínggui le
I have finished writing the letter(s). I have bought the apples (we need).
2 Add another verb or verb phrase wi xig le xìn jiù qù jì xìn le As soon as I had written the letter, I went to post it. wi mfi le pínggui jiù huí jia le I went home as soon as I had bought the apples. Completed action of course in most cases refers to something completed in the past and an English translation would naturally use the present perfect tense or the simple past (or even past perfect) tense. A completed action, however, may take place in the future, as the following examples show: wi xià le ban jiù qù zhfo nh When I finish work/have come off work I will come (lit. go) and see you. qhng nh kàn le ycshbng jiù qù dfzhbn When you have seen the doctor, please go and have the injection.
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