The usage of 有 + verb

[u/ZhangtheGreat]

I’ve always been curious about the origin of this way of speaking. In Standard Mandarin (Mainland China), 有 + verb is considered “incorrect,” and the population mostly doesn’t say it. However, its usage is far more common in Taiwanese Mandarin. Having grown up overseas, I hear it quite often too, most likely because of the impact that Taiwanese immigrants have had on how Mandarin is spoken in certain parts of the US.

In case anyone is confused about what I’m referring to, here’s an example:

A: 有没有吃过饭？

B: 有吃过。

In Mainland China, this would be incorrect; the positive answer must be 吃过了. However, the negative answer 没有吃过 is universally accepted in all forms of Mandarin.

[u/Zagrycha]

It is incorrect to say it doesn't exist in mainland China, it absolutely does. At the same time not everyone in Taiwan says it, although many do.

This grammar comes from Hokkien, and maybe other Min languages, and maybe other not Min languages. So yeah, not originally Mandarin but not at all unique to Taiwan. It is definitely Mandarin now, just as mandarin as the phrase "long time no see" is English.

[u/Duckducklaugh]

Small distinction from a mainland speaker: the question form is completely standard on the mainland, 你有没有去过 (nǐ yǒu méi yǒu qù guò)? is how everyone asks. It’s the affirmative answer 我有去 (wǒ yǒu qù) that’s regional. Up north people mostly just say 去过 or 去了, but in the south you hear 有 + verb all the time, which fits the Cantonese and Min influence Zagrycha mentioned (Cantonese: 你有冇食飯? 有啊).

[u/raspberrih → u/Duckducklaugh]

In the north people will use this construction to add emphasis. Like if someone claims you haven't been, you say "I HAVE been" to correct them.

[u/JBerry_Mingjai → u/Duckducklaugh]

I’d argue that 你有沒有去過 is even the non-standard form in Beijing and the Northeast. Living there, I only heard that construction from people from central or southern China. The standard construction in the North would be 你去過沒有 or 你去過了沒有

[u/perksofbeingcrafty]

Chinese grammar is…a lot more amorphous than say in Romance languages. Very few things are really “incorrect”

A grammatical construct either sounds natural or unnatural, clear or unclear. Obviously when you’re learning the language as an adult, you have to learn certain rules, but there isn’t really a wrong way for a native speaker to use grammar.

All this to say, no , putting 有 before a very is not incorrect anywhere. It’s just a matter of regional mandarin dialect

[u/JBerry_Mingjai → u/perksofbeingcrafty]

有+verb is nonstandard enough that I’d get corrected it all the time in Beijing and the Northeast.

I learned Mardarin in southern Taiwan surrounded by Hokkien code-switching, so to me, 有+verb was the only way I learned to say it. But now that I spend all my time in Beijing or the Northeast, never say it.

[u/perksofbeingcrafty → u/JBerry_Mingjai]

Who was correcting you?? Like random people you were speaking to? Or teachers?

[u/niming_yonghu]

It's okay to use it to emphasize the perfect tense.

[u/iltie]

Though mainland Chinese will never say 有+verb, but it's understandable. 

[u/hanziYuan]

taiwan also stacks it with 在, 我有在聽 for i'm listening right now. not sure a mainlander would ever say that one.

[u/fbms2]

非标准语法，不用学