I can think of three ways to say to someone that they already saw that game (because I watched it with them and they are now watching the replay).
nǐ yǐjīng kàn le nà gè bǐsài
你已经看了那个比赛
Nǐ yǐjīng kàn nà gè bǐsài le
你已经看那个比赛了
Nǐ shì yǐjīng kàn nà gè bǐsài de
你是已经看那个比赛的
I am guessing that the third sentence is the best. Is there a better way of expressing this?
you already saw that game
Robert-C7
January 8, 2015
marieg-rocket languages
November 2, 2020
Hi Robert-C7,
Must be an exciting game! If you want to tell someone “you already saw that game” under the context you provided, it is best to include 那场 (nà chǎng) in order to specifically cater to “that game” which your friend has saw. In this term, 那 (nà)—as you must have already mastered—refers to “that,” and 场 (chǎng) is more fitting than 个 (gè) since it is the “measure word” for games.
The best way to say it would be:
你已经看过那场比赛了 (nǐ yǐjīng kànguò nà chǎng bǐsài le) “you already watched that game,” emphasis on you have already watched it before 看过 (kànguò), so it should be familiar to you.
Or, you could also say 你已经看完了那场比赛 (nǐ yjīng kànwán le nà chǎng bǐsài), meaning “you have finished watching that game,” emphasizing that the entire game—from beginning to end—has already been watched by the friend.
For a simpler version, you’ll likely say 你已经看了那场比赛 (nǐ yǐjīng kànle nà chǎng bǐsài). Here, 看 (kàn) no longer has a suffixing complement that focuses on having finished a certain move (which was the function of 过 {guò} in the first sentence), so we add the 了 (le) indicating past tense right after the action word.
Hope this clears things up for you a little bit. And please don’t worry too much about word order. As Chinese is relatively loose on grammatical structure, word order in a sentence becomes more important, but harder to master for non-native speakers. The three sentences you wrote down can all convey what you wanted to say, but it really takes practice and a lot more examples to get the knack on how a native speaker would organize his or her sentence.
We hope you continue your passion for Chinese, and do let us know if there are any more sentences you want to compare!
Kind Regards!
Must be an exciting game! If you want to tell someone “you already saw that game” under the context you provided, it is best to include 那场 (nà chǎng) in order to specifically cater to “that game” which your friend has saw. In this term, 那 (nà)—as you must have already mastered—refers to “that,” and 场 (chǎng) is more fitting than 个 (gè) since it is the “measure word” for games.
The best way to say it would be:
你已经看过那场比赛了 (nǐ yǐjīng kànguò nà chǎng bǐsài le) “you already watched that game,” emphasis on you have already watched it before 看过 (kànguò), so it should be familiar to you.
Or, you could also say 你已经看完了那场比赛 (nǐ yjīng kànwán le nà chǎng bǐsài), meaning “you have finished watching that game,” emphasizing that the entire game—from beginning to end—has already been watched by the friend.
For a simpler version, you’ll likely say 你已经看了那场比赛 (nǐ yǐjīng kànle nà chǎng bǐsài). Here, 看 (kàn) no longer has a suffixing complement that focuses on having finished a certain move (which was the function of 过 {guò} in the first sentence), so we add the 了 (le) indicating past tense right after the action word.
Hope this clears things up for you a little bit. And please don’t worry too much about word order. As Chinese is relatively loose on grammatical structure, word order in a sentence becomes more important, but harder to master for non-native speakers. The three sentences you wrote down can all convey what you wanted to say, but it really takes practice and a lot more examples to get the knack on how a native speaker would organize his or her sentence.
We hope you continue your passion for Chinese, and do let us know if there are any more sentences you want to compare!
Kind Regards!