Learn Hardcore Chinese: Tīngdào tā nàyàng shuō, tā xiào le hěn jiǔ. - When she heard him say that, she laughed for a long time.

听到 literally is 听 (to hear) + 到 (reach / arrive). Here 到 works as a result complement, showing that the action of hearing was successfully completed:

听 – to listen / to hear (the action itself)
听到 – to manage to hear / to have heard (you actually caught the sound)

So 听到他那样说 means “(having) heard him say that”, focusing on the result that the hearing really happened, not just the process of listening.

What’s the difference between 听到, 听见, and just 听? Are they interchangeable here?

Roughly:

听到 – emphasizes successfully hearing something (result).
听见 – very similar, “to hear, to catch (the sound)”. Often interchangeable with 听到 in everyday speech.
听 – more general: “to listen / to hear” without emphasizing whether you actually perceived the sound clearly.

In this sentence, you could say:

听到他那样说
听见他那样说

Both are fine and very natural. Using only 听他那样说 is possible but feels a bit more like “when she was listening to him say that”, not as clearly result‑focused as 听到 / 听见.

Why is there no subject before 听到? Shouldn’t it be 她听到他那样说?

The full version could indeed be:

她听到他那样说，她笑了很久。

But Chinese often drops the subject in the first clause if it is the same as in the second clause and the meaning is clear from context.

So:

(她) 听到他那样说，她笑了很久。

is completely natural. The listener automatically understands that 她 is also the subject of 听到. This is very common in Chinese narrative style.

How should we understand 他那样说? Does 那样 refer to what he said or how he said it?

那样 literally means “that way / like that”. It can refer to:

The content of what he said:
- “When she heard him say that sort of thing / say that …”
The manner / tone in which he spoke:
- “When she heard him say it that way / in that manner …”

In practice, it’s often a mix, and context tells you which nuance is stronger. Without more context, learners often understand it as “when she heard him say that (kind of thing)”.

Could we replace 那样 with 那么 or 那样子? Would the meaning change?

Yes, you could say:

听到他那么说，她笑了很久。
听到他那样子说，她笑了很久。 (more colloquial / spoken)

Nuances:

那样 – quite neutral, “that way / like that”.
那么 – often slightly more emotional or evaluative in speech (sometimes like “like that?!”).
那样子 – sounds a bit more colloquial or vivid, “that sort of way”.

In many everyday contexts, they are close enough that learners can treat them as interchangeable and not worry too much about the fine shades.

Should there be a 地 in 那样说 (like 那样地说) to make it an adverb? Why is it missing?

In formal grammar, you might expect:

那样地说 – “to speak in that way / like that”

But in modern spoken and written Chinese, 地 is very often dropped when the meaning is obvious. Adjectives or demonstratives directly before a verb frequently function adverbially without 地:

慢走 (lit. “slow walk”) = “walk slowly”
认真听 = “listen carefully”
那样说 = “say it that way / say that kind of thing”

So 那样说 is completely natural and not considered wrong.

What role does the comma between 说 and 她 play? Is it like “when …” or “after …” in English?

Yes, the comma here separates an adverbial clause from the main clause:

(她) 听到他那样说， – “(When / After) she heard him say that,”
她笑了很久。 – “she laughed for a long time.”

Chinese often uses a comma instead of an explicit word like 当…的时候 (when) or 之后 (after) when the temporal or causal relationship is clear from context. So you can mentally read the comma as “when/after” in English.

In 她笑了很久, what is the function of 了? Is it just a past tense marker?

了 here is mainly an aspect marker, not a pure past tense marker. It shows that the action of 笑 (laughing) is viewed as a completed event with a certain duration.

她笑了很久。 – She laughed (and that laughing event has finished) for a long time.

Chinese doesn’t have verb tense endings like English. 了 often appears in past‑time contexts, but its core function is to mark completion or change of state, not “past” by itself.

Why is the duration 很久 placed after 了? Could we say 她笑很久了 or 她笑很久?

There are two common patterns:

Completed event (past / viewed as finished):
- Subject + Verb + 了 + Duration
- 她笑了很久。 – She laughed for a long time. (It’s over.)
Action continuing up to now (or up to another reference point):
- Subject + Verb + Duration + 了
- 她笑了很久了。 – She has been laughing for a long time (and is still laughing now).

About your other versions:

她笑很久 – unnatural / ungrammatical in standard Mandarin for this meaning; you normally need 了 with a specific past duration.
她笑很久了 – also ungrammatical; the 了 goes after the duration if you want the “has been … for a long time” meaning: 她笑了很久了.

Why use 很久 instead of just 久? What does 很 add here?

久 means “long (time)”, but Chinese often needs a degree word before adjectives, especially in neutral statements. 很:

Works as a degree adverb (“very / quite”),
But in many cases it’s also just a default linker between subject and adjective or between verb and adjective.

So:

笑了久 – sounds wrong / unnatural.
笑了很久 – natural: “laughed for a long time”.

Here 很 doesn’t always feel as strong as English “very”; it can just make the phrase sound smooth and grammatical.

Does 她笑了很久 mean she laughed continuously, or could it be on and off?

By default, 她笑了很久 suggests she laughed more or less continuously during that period, as a single event. If it were lots of separate, scattered laughs over a long time, Chinese would usually phrase it differently (e.g. specifying “kept laughing” in different situations or adding more context).

So you can safely interpret it as one long stretch of laughing, triggered by what he said.

In spoken Chinese, 他 and 她 sound the same. How do people know whether it’s “he” or “she” in this sentence?

In standard Mandarin, 他 (he) and 她 (she) are both pronounced tā. Speakers usually rely on:

Context – who is being talked about, previous sentences, names, the situation, etc.
World knowledge – if you know there’s one man and one woman in the story, and the person just speaking was male, then 他 is “he” and 她 is “she”.

In writing, of course, 他 and 她 are different characters, so there’s no ambiguity on the page. In speech, context almost always makes it clear enough.

How do we know this whole sentence is in the past, since Chinese doesn’t mark past tense directly?

Several clues point to a past event:

Aspect marker 了 in 笑了很久 – the laughing is treated as a completed event.
The 听到…，她笑了… structure – this is a typical narrative pattern describing a sequence of events (“She heard X, then she laughed …”).
No words like 正在 (be in the middle of) or 会 (will) that might push it toward present or future.

Chinese relies on aspect markers, time words, and context, not verb tense endings, to tell you whether something is in the past, present, or future. Here, everything points to a past narrative.