TSUMUGU · TBCL 3 (est.) · 語法
就要…了
grammar point · tier 3 · imminent future 就要…了 (about to, any moment now)
Wraps a verb to mark it as about to happen at any moment, with 了 signalling the new state about to land.
Hook inherited from 了.
Wraps a verb to mark it as about to happen at any moment, with 了 signalling the new state about to land.
框 · Frame
([time word]) 就要 [verb (phrase)] 了
觸 · Trigger
An event is bearing down on the present, close enough to announce it is about to happen.
序 · The move
1Set 就要 before the verb, the verb naming what is about to happen.Is a verb following 就要, and has it not happened yet?
2Close the sentence with 了.Is 了 at the very end, marking the new state, not buried after the verb as a completion mark?
3Read it back for imminence.Does this say the action is about to land soon, not that it already happened?
例 · Examples
1下個星期next week就要about to, any moment開學start school了the new state lands。
School starts next week.
界 · Boundary
要…了就要…了 presses the action close, any moment now; plain 要…了 says it is coming soon without the same urgency. 就 tightens the clock.
了2就要…了 says the action has not happened yet but is about to; bare 了 says the new state has already arrived. 就要 in front keeps the event ahead of now.
已經就要走了 (a time already passed paired with the imminent frame) → 就要走了 (the frame holds the event ahead of now, not behind it)
在十分鐘就要開始了 (在 read as 'in' for the countdown) → 十分鐘後就要開始了 (the time sits before 就要, no 在)
他就要了 (frame closed with no verb) → 他就要走了 (a verb must sit inside the frame)
English 'about to / going to' is a verb phrase that needs no end-marker; learners drop the closing 了 and leave the imminence unmarked.