Level 4 · Lesson 6

你去过中国吗？
Have you ever been to China?

我去过长城。我没去过中国。以前、以后。

过 says an experience is somewhere in your life — and 没…过 keeps its 过.

听 · Listen

对话
 安娜 —  李明，你去过长城吗？ 
Li Ming, have you ever been to the Great Wall?  
 李明 —  去过！以前我常常去。 
I have! I used to go a lot.  
 安娜 —  我没去过长城，也没去过北京。 
I've never been to the Great Wall, and never to Beijing either.  
 李明 —  那你去过哪儿？ 
So where have you been?  
 安娜 —  我去过日本，也去过美国。 
I've been to Japan, and to the United States.  
 李明 —  以后你来中国旅行，好吗？ 
Come and travel in China one day — all right?  
 安娜 —  好！以后我去长城旅行。 
Yes! I'll go and see the Great Wall.  
 李明 —  我很高兴。 
That makes me happy.  

讲解 · Explanation

你去过长城吗？去过。

过 sits straight after the verb and asks one thing only: is this experience anywhere in your life? 你去过长城吗 does not ask when you went, how often, or whether you are back — it asks whether the thing has ever happened to you at all. That is why the whole answer can be the verb again: 去过. Read the particle light and toneless, guo. The full word 过 guò 'to cross, to pass' is a different animal; as a marker after a verb it is always guo.

我没去过长城，也没去过北京。

To say you have never done it, put 没 in front and leave 过 exactly where it is: 没 + verb + 过. This is the one particle a negator does not swallow. 了 vanishes after 没 — 我没去, never 我没去了 — but 过 stays, because 过 is the word carrying 'ever'. And 不 cannot do this job at all: 不 refuses, or denies a habit; it cannot deny a lifetime.

以前我常常去，以后我去中国旅行。

以前 'before, in the past' and 以后 'afterwards, from now on' are time words, so they stand at the head of the clause or right after the subject — never at the end. They divide the work neatly with 过: 以前 opens the door on what you have already lived (以前我去过日本), 以后 opens it on what is still ahead (以后我去长城旅行). A sentence about 以后 never takes 过, because nobody has experienced tomorrow yet.

生词 · Vocabulary

词	Meaning	注 · Note
过	have ever (experience marker)	动词 + 过, light and toneless
以前	before, in the past	以前我常常去
以后	afterwards, from now on	以后你来中国
旅行	to travel, to take a trip	去中国旅行; ü stays after l
长城	the Great Wall	长 is cháng 'long' here, not zhǎng

练习 · Practice

我______中国。 I have never been to China.

______我去过日本。 I have been to Japan before.

我没吃______饺子。 I have never eaten dumplings.

排一排。 Arrange the words: 'Later on I'll travel to China.'

过、以前、以后、旅行、长城 Match each word to its meaning.

用一用 · Use it

以前我去过日本。我没去过中国。以后我去长城旅行。

Name three places out loud: one you have been to (以前我去过…), one you never have (我没去过…), and one that is still ahead of you (以后我去…旅行). Then ask a friend 你去过…吗 and listen for the short Chinese answer that comes back — 去过 or 没去过, the verb saying yes and no by itself.