Future tense for this grammar structure?

[Evanoff]

I'm trying to use a grammar structure I just learned but I'm wondering if I can make it future tense?

我一点儿钱也不用付。

Here it just means "I don't have to pay any money", but I'm wanting this to be future tense because I just found out I am going studying abroad in China for free and so I want to express that when the time comes for students to pay up for the trip, I won't have to pay any money at all.

Of course if the original sentence is wrong feel free to correct me lol

Thanks!

[anonymoose]

It is worth remembering that expressing the same thing in Chinese as in English is not simply a case of performing a one-to-one replacement of English words with Chinese words. Different languages work in different ways, and especially with languages as different as Chinese and English, you cannot use the grammatical concepts of one language to construct the other.

Chinese does not have tenses in the same way as English. Past, present and future in Chinese can be expressed using explicit time words (such as "yesterday", "now", "tomorrow" and so on), but is not indicated by the form of the verb, as is the case with English. Thus, "I didn't have to", "I don't have to" and "I won't have to" can all be rendered as 我不用 in Chinese. So the sentence you wrote doesn't just mean "I don't have to pay any money", but it could equally mean "I won't have to pay any money". As a standalone sentence, the equivalent meaning in English is ambiguous. What is actually meant will usually be clear from context.

If you want to emphasize that "when the time comes" to pay, you won't have to pay any money, then all you need to do is add "when the time comes" to the beginning of the sentence: 到时候，我一点钱也不用付。

[LiMo]

I agree with anonymoose. I think in a conversation where the trip was already explained and it was already established that it is in the future then a native speaker would just say the original sentence. I think the "future" sentence really emphasises that you won't have to pay. This would probably be said in response to closer enquiry about how you were going to finance your trip. Whereas the original sentence could be said by you in the course of explanation, without special emphasis.

 

At least that's my feeling. I'm not a native speaker so please take this advice with caution.

[889]

Just add to the start of your sentence, “在中国学习之中, 我. . . "

[abcdefg]

我一点儿钱也不用付。

 

Agree with adding 到时候 at the front to clarify timing. I would also change the amount of money from 一点钱 to 一块钱。It will then have the sense of "I won't have to pay even a penny."

[Demonic_Duck]

I would also change the amount of money from 一点钱 to 一块钱。It will then have the sense of "I won't have to pay even a penny."

 

I generally see/hear “一分钱（都/也不/没……）”. Even though people very rarely use 分 in everyday transactions these days, it's technically still the smallest unit of Chinese currency, and it emphasises that you don't need to spend anything.

[abcdefg]

Sure. 一分 or 一角 or 一毛 would work equally well. Just not 一点儿钱 as was originally proposed.

[Demonic_Duck]

I know search result statistics aren't the be-all and end-all, but still...

 

"一分钱都没" 1,820,000
"一点钱都没" 903,000
"一毛钱都没" 360,000

"一块钱都没" 137,000
"一元钱都没" 10,300
"一角钱都没" 1,530

"一分钱都不" 1,740,000
"一点钱都不" 939,000
"一毛钱都不" 396,000

"一块钱都不" 248,000
"一元钱都不" 22,300
"一角钱都不" 3,650

 

(From Baidu.)

 

In either case, the variant with “点” is the second most common, with about half the number of results as the variant with “分”.

 

Edit: oops. Post edited, thanks to dwq for pointing out my mistake.

[dwq]

“快” is by far the least commonly seen

I agree.

However, If you want to talk about “块”...

"一块钱都没" 137,000

"一块钱都不" 248,000

"一快钱都没" 112

"一快钱都不" 43

[Demonic_Duck]

My bad, sloppy searching/inputting there on my part. However, “点” is still more common than “块” for either structure.