Time words — before the verb, big unit first
A time word goes before the verb, either right after the subject or at the very front of the sentence: 我明天去北京 or 明天我去北京. It can never follow the verb, and dates run from the largest unit to the smallest: year, month, day.
Structure
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Subject + Time + Verb + Object
The default position.
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Time + Subject + Verb + Object
Fronted for emphasis or to set the scene.
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Subject + Verb + Duration
Duration is the one time expression that follows the verb.
How it works
"When" is settled before the action is named. 我明天去北京。 — I tomorrow go Beijing. Moving the time word to the front (明天我去北京。) is equally correct and slightly more emphatic; putting it after the verb is simply wrong.
Chinese always narrows from big to small. A full date is 2026年7月30日, and a full time expression stacks the same way: 明天早上八点 — tomorrow, morning, eight o'clock.
The exception is duration — how long something lasts, not when it happens. That follows the verb: 我学了两年中文。 (I studied Chinese for two years.) If there is an object, either repeat the verb (我学中文学了两年) or use the 的 form (我学了两年的中文).
Because Chinese verbs never conjugate, these time words are what carry tense. 我昨天去, 我今天去 and 我明天去 use identical verb forms.
Examples
Quick drill — 5 questions
Five fill-in-the-gap questions built from the example sentences above. No sign-up, no score kept — just a check that the pattern has actually landed.
Choose the word that belongs in the gap:
Common mistakes
| ✗ Wrong | ✓ Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 我去北京明天。 | 我明天去北京。 | Time never follows the verb. This is the most frequent English-speaker error in Chinese. |
| 7月30日2026年 | 2026年7月30日 | Big to small, always: year, month, day — and hour after that. |
| 我两年学了中文。 | 我学了两年中文。 | Duration is not a time word. "How long" follows the verb; "when" precedes it. |
Where time words go — frequently asked questions
Where do time words go in a Chinese sentence?
Before the verb — either right after the subject (我明天去北京) or fronted for emphasis (明天我去北京). Both are correct. A time word may never come after the verb, which is the reverse of English "I'm going to Beijing tomorrow".
How do you write a date in Chinese?
Largest unit first: 2026年7月30日 (year, month, day), and the weekday or time of day follows the date — 2026年7月30日星期四下午三点. The same big-to-small principle governs addresses.
What is the difference between a time word and duration?
A time word says when (昨天, 明天, 三点) and goes before the verb. Duration says how long (两年, 三个小时) and goes after it: 我学了两年中文. Mixing them up is a common intermediate error.
How does Chinese show past and future without conjugation?
Through time words and aspect particles. 我昨天去 (I went yesterday) and 我明天去 (I'll go tomorrow) use the identical verb 去. The particle 了 marks completion and 过 marks experience, but neither is a tense.
Next, learn
Put it to work
Drill the vocabulary for this level on the HSK 1 word list, rebuild scrambled sentences in the Sentence Builder, read graded stories that use this pattern in the story library, or follow a step-by-step route through the whole site in Guided Learning Paths.