Mandarin · Chapter 16 · Lesson 4 · Grammar primer
Double le sentences
Grammar for HSK 4.
The short version
Drop the final 了 (le) and the three years are over
我学了三年中文 (wǒ xué le sān nián zhōng wén) says you studied Chinese for three years and stopped. 我学了三年中文了 (wǒ xué le sān nián zhōng wén le) says three years and counting. The verb-了 (le) packages the measured chunk; the sentence-final 了 (le) plants it in the present. If the action is still running, both are compulsory.
我学了三年中文了 wǒ xué le sān nián zhōng wén le
That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why - and the practice below scores like a vocabulary session and earns the same XP.
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10-question session
One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end. There are 24 in all: practise more afterwards if you want them.
Lesson 4 of 7 in this chapter