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Lesson 3 of 10 / Sentence 2 of 5

Study: Time Expressions

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Sentence Number 2

Yesterday I buy phone

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Chinese Sentence

昨天我买手机。

Full Pinyin

zuó tiān wǒ mǎi shǒu jī

Natural English

I bought a phone yesterday.

Short Description

A past-time purchase sentence with canonical base-form tokens.

Sentence Pattern

CWB-P005

Level

basic

Sentence Type

Standardized Expression

Standard Status

standard

Sentence Analysis

A past-time purchase sentence with canonical base-form tokens.

Sentence Analysis

The source sequence 昨天 / 我 / 买 / 手机 becomes Yesterday / I / buy / phone. Yesterday supplies the past reference, so buy is not changed to bought. Natural English both moves the time expression and adds an article; neither change affects Chinglish identity.

Token Mapping

Position Surface Token Chinese Unit Pinyin Linked Word
1 yesterday 昨天 zuó tiān yesterday
2 I I
3 buy mǎi buy
4 phone 手机 shǒu jī phone

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