Past Events

ChineseEnglishUsage Context
昨天yesterdayFormal & casual
前几天a few days agoRecent past
最近recentlyGeneral recent time
上周last weekSpecific week
上个月last monthSpecific month

Example Sentences

  • “I finished the report yesterday.”
  • “I saw him a few days ago.”
  • “Recently, I’ve been focusing on security improvements.”
  • “The meeting was last week.”
  • “The project started last month.”

Duration

ChineseEnglishUsage Context
花了很多时间spent a lot of timeGeneral
花了很长时间took quite a whileCasual
持续了…lasted for…Formal

Example Sentences

  • “I spent a lot of time on this project.”
  • “The meeting took quite a while.”
  • “The project lasted for three months.”

Scheduling

EnglishUsage
next week“I’ll finish it next week.”
in two days“The deadline is in two days.”
tomorrow“Let’s meet tomorrow.”
by the end of the month“Report due by the end of this month.”

Common Mistakes

❌ Wrong✅ Correct
last daythe next day
in 2 daysin two days

Practice

Fill in the blanks:

  1. I’ll submit the report ___. (明天)
  2. We worked on this project ___ two months. (持续了两个月)
  3. I saw him ___. (前几天)
  4. The project started ___. (上个月)

Answers:

  1. tomorrow
  2. for
  3. a few days ago
  4. last month