Completed Action: 了, 有, 過 and 吂

01

Completion Is Not Past Tense

The particle says the action reached its end, not that it happened long ago. A sentence with a time word and no particle is perfectly ordinary, and a sentence with the particle can describe something finished only moments ago. What the particle contributes is the sense of an action rounded off.

02

有 — Affirming That It Happened

有 (iuˊyû) before the verb insists that the event did take place, in the way English stresses did in I did see it. It is used to confirm something, to answer a doubt, or to underline a stretch of time that has genuinely passed.

• 𠊎有九年無看著你了！

  ngaiˇ iuˊ giuˋ ngienˇ moˇ kon doˋ nˇ leˋngài yû kiú ngièn mò khon tó ǹ lé

  I haven't seen you for nine years!

• 有幾多年了？

  iuˊ giˋ doˊ ngienˇ leˋyû kí tô ngièn lé

  How many years has it been?

03

The Negative

A completed action is denied with 無 (moˇmò), never with 毋 (mˇm̀), and the completion particle drops away entirely in the negative. There is nothing corresponding to English didn't beyond the negator itself.

• 𠊎無看著。

  ngaiˇ moˇ kon doˋngài mò khon tó

  I didn't see it.

04

Asking Whether It Is Done

A question about completion is not built with the completion particle. 吂 (mangˇmàng) closes the sentence instead, asking whether the event has happened yet and leaving open that it still may. The answer that confirms it goes back to 了 (leˋlé) in the ordinary way.

• 若行李收好吂？

  ngiaˊ hangˇ liˋ suˊ hoˋ mangˇngiâ hàng lí sû hó màng

  Is your luggage packed yet?

• 你開門吂？

  nˇ koiˊ munˇ mangˇǹ khôi mùn màng

  Have you opened the door yet?

• 開了。

  koiˊ leˋkhôi lé

  I have opened it.

The other way of asking frames the verb instead: 有 (iuˊyû) in front of it, 無 (moˇmò) at the end. This one asks whether the event took place at all, without the sense of yet.

• 你有看著無？

  nˇ iuˊ kon doˋ moˇǹ yû khon tó mò

  Did you see it?

05

過 — Having Done It Before

A different question is whether something has ever been done at all, and that is marked by 過 (goko) attached to the verb. It does not report that a particular occasion finished; it says the speaker has the experience of it at some point in the past, matching English have ever ….

• 𠊎先前看過。

  ngaiˇ xienˊ qienˇ kon gongài siên chhièn khon ko

  I have seen it before.

• 𠊎頭擺識去過法國。

  ngaiˇ teuˇ baiˋ siidˋ hi go fabˋ guedˋngài thèu pái sṳt hi ko fap koet

  I have been to France before.

• 你有聽過這隻樂隊無？

  nˇ iuˊ tangˊ go iaˋ zagˋ ngog cui moˇǹ yû thâng ko yá chak ngo̍k chhui mò

  Have you heard of this band?

An adverb naming an earlier time regularly stands in front, and the experience marker leaves the verb otherwise untouched.

06

Two Jobs for One Particle

The same 了 (leˋlé) also closes a sentence to mark a newly arrived situation rather than a completed action. Position separates them: directly after the verb it completes the action, at the very end of the sentence it announces the change.

• 𠊎既經摎手機仔借分你了。

  ngaiˇ gi ginˊ lauˊ suˋ giˊ eˋ jia bunˊ nˇ leˋngài ki kîn lâu sú kî é chia pûn ǹ lé

  I've already lent you my cell phone.