What's the role of 曾经 in 他曾经在北京学过两年汉语?

Question

In this sentence:

他曾经在北京学过两年汉语。

what's the role of 曾经? I understand that 过 already implies that the action happened in the past.

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:50

曾经 is more equivalent to "once" in English as in the sentence

Once we were the best friends.

It is used to:

express the fact the sentence is talking about happened in the past.

if the predicate verb is a durative verb*, express that fact can't be experienced(经=experience) by the speaker(doesn't last) any more.
, the speaker implies that the status is different now. In this case, it means "used to" as in the sentence "I used to be a kind man(implies now I am not)." For your example, the speaker implies that he is not studying Chinese in Bejing now.

*By "durative verb", I mean the action expreesed by that verb can last for a long time. For example, "study, like, look, be, work,feed, etc.". These verbs can be used in the progress tense in English(-ing form). Some other verbs can not, such as "hear of, see, kick, etc." You can't say " I am hearing of a terrible story", while you can say" I am listening to a terrible story".

Can someone tell me the right grammar term if I am wrong?

+1... speaking as someone who knows quite a bit about english grammar, that's a hard question you pose there. why not ask on the english site? — magnetar, Jan 15 '12 at 21:04

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 15 '12 at 01:29

Just as 已经 means "already" and emphasizes the sense of the completed action particle 了, 曾经 means "once" and emphasizes the sense of 过. I disagree with Bob that 曾经 means already here; in general "once" or "ever" is a better translation. I would render your sentence as "I once studied two years of Chinese in Beijing."

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 15 '12 at 00:08

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It means 'already', to add emphasis to the sentence - 'he already studied Mandarin in Beijing for two years'

answered Jan 15 '12 at 00:08

Bob

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So is it equivalent to 已经 in that sentence? – dusan Jan 15 '12 at 00:12
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@dusan could you please propose a new question to know the difference between them? – Huang Jan 15 '12 at 01:19
@Huang done: http://chinese.stackexchange.com/q/902/13 – dusan Jan 15 '12 at 01:33
@dusan I have completed my answer. 我已经完成了答案(here, I won't say 曾经) – Huang Jan 15 '12 at 04:22
Bob, could you please improve your answer? Post a translation of your example, or provide more examples. – Alenanno Jan 18 '12 at 22:16

What's the role of 曾经 in 他曾经在北京学过两年汉语?

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