China and the Chinese

by Herbert Allen Giles

And by inserting 不 pu, a root-idea of negation,—

他不来 t'a pu lai = "he comes not, or is not coming."

To express an interrogative, we say,—

他来不来 t'a lai pu lai = "he come no come?" i.e. "is he coming?"

submitting the two alternatives for the person addressed to choose from in reply.

The indefinite past tense is formed by adding the word 了 liao or lo "finished":—

他来了 t'a lai lo = "he come finish," = "he has come."

This may be turned into the definite past tense by inserting some indication of time; e.g.

他早上来了 = "he came this morning."

Here we see that the same words may be indefinite or definite according to circumstances.