過 — Completive marker: within a recent bounded span (today, this morning), the verb's action has been gone through and is finished, so it need not be done again now.

TSUMUGU · TBCL 3 (est.) · 語法

過 grammar point · tier 1 · completive V過 (already been through it, done for now)

· guò

Completive marker: within a recent bounded span (today, this morning), the verb's action has been gone through and is finished, so it need not be done again now.

Hook inherited from 過.

Completive marker

框 · Frame

[subj] (已經) [verb] 過 ([obj]) (了)

觸 · Trigger

You want to say a task in a recent span is already taken care of, so it doesn't need doing again now.

序 · The move

1name the recent span the action sits in (今天, 早上, 這個禮拜)is this 'already done within this window', not 'done at some point in my life'?

2verb + 過, glued togetherdoes 過 sit right after the verb, before any object?

3front 已經 and close with 了 to mark 'and so it's settled now'does the 了 read as 'state has changed, no need to redo', not as a past-tense stamp?

4to negate, put 還沒 before the verb and keep 過還沒 [verb] 過 ('haven't yet'), never 不?

例 · Examples

1我I今天早上this morning已經already看watch過completive — been through it, done for now電視新聞TV news了sentence-final — change of state。

I've already watched the TV news this morning.

界 · Boundary

V過1

V過2 is bounded to a recent span and means 'done already, no need to redo now' (今天早上看過了); V過1 is unbounded life experience, 'ever, at some point' (看過這部電影). Drop the time window and add 已經…了 and you have V過2.

V了1

V了1 just reports the action got done (看了新聞 = watched the news); V過2 adds that it has been passed through and is settled for this span (看過新聞了 = already watched, so it's off the list). 了 reports realization; 過 marks it gone-through-and-finished.

wrong negator: 我不看過新聞 → 我還沒看過新聞

object before 過: 我看新聞過了 → 我看過新聞了

treating it as lifetime experience: for 'I've eaten Japanese food before' use V過1 (吃過日本料理), not the today-bounded V過2

English present perfect ('I've already watched') maps onto both V過2 and 了, and gives no signal that the span is bounded to today; learners drop the time frame and the 'already, done for now' reading collapses into either plain past or lifetime experience.