Chinese Grammar - Mood

Mood

Another category of devices used in Chinese are the modal particles (语气助词 yǔqì zhùcí), used to express mood, or an expression of how a statement relates to reality and/or intent. Among them, the most important are:

• Le (inceptive)
  • 我(wǒ) 没(méi) 钱(qián) 了(le)。
    As of now, I have no money. (I've gone broke.)

• Hai (pending)
  • 他(tā) 还(hái) 没(méi) 有(yǒu) 回(huí) 家(jiā)。
    He still has not returned home. (There has been no change in the old situation)

The perfective le and the inceptive le are often considered to be two different words. The Chinese linguist Y.R. Chao (Zhào Yuánrèn) traces the two "le"s back to two entirely different words. The fact that they are now written the same way in Mandarin can cause confusion. Consider the following sentence:

妈妈(māma) 来(lái) 了(le)！

The aspect marker le comes after a transitive or intransitive verb. The modal particle le comes at the end of a sentence and governs the entire sentence. When an intransitive verb comes at the end of a sentence, then the only way to determine whether the le at the end of the sentence is perfective or inceptive is to look at the context. The sentence given above can have two different meanings. In one case, someone is perhaps engaged in a long distance telephone call with Mother. He is trying to convince her to travel to where he is for some celebration. He hangs up the phone and says, "Māma (yào) lái le!" That sentence gives the information that Mother had not previously agreed to travel here, but the situation has changed and she will be coming after all. If, however, there is a knock on the front door and someone who has gone to answer the door shouts, "Māma lái le!" it means that she has come.