HSK 1 · Particles

了 le “aspect particle” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 了 means

  1. aspect particle
  2. (completed action marker)
  3. (modal particle indicating change of state, situation now)
  4. (modal particle intensifying preceding clause)

How to say 了

  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own了leneutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

了 in a sentence

  1. 我向他问了他的名字。

    Wǒ xiàng tā wèn le tā de míngzi.

    I asked him his name.

    Sentence #14023315 from Tatoeba

  2. 你今天早上吃了什么？

    Nǐ jīntiān zǎoshang chī le shénme?

    What did you eat this morning?

    Sentence #2298226 from Tatoeba

  3. 他昨天病了，所以没来学校。

    Tā zuótiān bìng le, suǒyǐ méi lái xuéxiào.

    He was sick yesterday, so he didn’t come to school.

    Sentence #10593201 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 了 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 了 (liǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
了lecompleted action marker
  • 乛part of the character
  • 亅hook · jué

How to write 了

了 2 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

了 (le) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 了 (le). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 了

Words with 了

了解liǎojiě · comprehend除了chúle · besides为了wèile · in order to受不了shòubùliǎo · unbearable不得了bùdéliǎo · extremely了不起liǎobuqǐ · amazing大不了dàbuliǎo · at worst一目了然yímùliǎorán · clear at a glance

More words: Particles & Connectors

的de · possessive particle吗ma · question particle呢ne · question particle不bù · no都dōu · all座zuò · measure word for buildings左右zuǒyòu · about重chóng · again

FAQs

了 (le) means “aspect particle” or “(completed action marker)”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it le: le with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 了 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type le with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 了 from the suggestions. Typing le into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
了 is an HSK 1 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.