1. Time - 3 Positions of Time Phrases Prepositional time phrases usually occur in 3 positions in a sentence: A few of them can occur after the verb and serve as complements; Most of them occur after the subject and before the verb; and some of them may occur at the beginning of a sentence.
2. Time - 世纪 means "Century"; 年代 means "decade".
3. Time - 季度/季节 "Seasons" There are different ways to express four seasons.
4. Time - Date / Weekdays The date format follows the order "from big to small" with year first, month next and day last.
5. Time - Clock Time Time in Chinese is formatted in either 12 hour or 24 hour notation, with hour first, minute next and second last.
6. Time - 上"last"/下"next"+Time Word Weeks, months and quarters can use with 上,下 and 这。
7. Time - Duration of Time+没/不+Verb When to express the duration of time with 不 or 没 in a sentence, the duration of time comes before the verb.
8. Time - Duration of Time+以前/以后 以后 means 'after'; 以前 means 'before'. 以后/以前 never comes before what they refer to.
9. Time - Duration of Time+之前 / 之后 之 is the marker of noun modification in Literary Chinese. It can be used for time phrases and sequence.
10. Time - 每 Every time The structure of 每 + Time words expresses 'every time'.
11. Time - 了(perfective aspect particle)+Duration of Time+了(modal particle) To indicate completion in Chinese, the structure of 了 + duration of time can be placed after a verb, which means a certain period of time has passed. In addition, a modal particle 了 can appear at the end of the sentence to indicate 'already'.
12. Time - 到-(时) "by" Preposition 到 + time phrase means "by".
13. Time - 的时候 / 时 The adverbial clause 的时候 always occurs before the main clause.
14. Time - From 从-以后 从 + time phrase + 以后 means 'since'.
15. Time - Duration of time + 的 + Noun The structure of Verb + 了 + duration of time + 的 + noun can be used to describe how long someone has done something. The word order for expressing the duration of time is very different from that for expressing the time when an action occurs.
16. Time - 过 "past" / 差 "to" 差 expresses minutes to the hour. 过 introduces minutes past the hour.
17. Time - 差不多 差不多 means 'almost, about'.
18. Time - 再过+duration of time 再过 can be placed before time phrase to express for how long a certain action will occur.
