An aspect of a language gives information about the temporal flow of language. Chinese is a language that has a unique set of aspects.
Perfectives
Chinese language has two perfectives (-le) and (-guo) which differ subtly in meaning.
- le (perfective)
1. wo dang le bing
I became a soldier.
2. Ta kan le san chang qiu sai
He watched three ballgames (and he probably has watched many during his lifetime; often used in a time-delimited context such as "today" or "last week").
- guo (experiential perfective)
1. wo dang guo bing
I've been a soldier before (but no longer am).
2. ta kan guo san chang qiu sai
He has watched three ballgames (and that is the sum of all the ballgames he has ever watched; in the context of actions like "watch" or "take part," which can easily be repeated, this does not have the same connotation of the first usage, but merely denotes that the action was in the past and describes the state of affairs up to now).
Imperetives
There are two imperatives that differ subtly, (zhèngzài-) and (-zhe)
- zhèngzài/zài (dynamic)
wo zheng zai gua huaI'm hanging pictures up. (The "hanging" is a continuous dynamic event.)
- zhe (static)
qiang shang gua zhe yi fu hua
A picture's hanging on the wall. (The "hanging" is a continuous current state.)
Reduplication
Reduplication is used when the need is to form the delimitative aspect – like some action that goes on for some time
- wo dao gong yuan zou zou
I'm going for a walk in the park.
This sentence also could be expressed by zǒu yi zǒu, which means the same thing, and could possibly be translated as "walk a little walk".