了
Meaning
- (completed action marker)
- (modal particle indicating change of state, situation now)
- (modal particle intensifying preceding clause)
How it's used
Two different 了. After a verb it marks a completed action — 我吃了饭 (I ate). At the end of a sentence it marks a change of state — 下雨了 (it's raining now, it wasn't before). Neither is a past tense: 明天我就走了 is about tomorrow.
Example sentence
我要走了。
I'm going to go.
Words containing 了
- 除了 chú le apart from; besides; in addition to (used to exclude, as in 除了他，谁也没来 "apart from him, nobody came", or to include, as in 除了英语，他也会法语 "in addition to English, he also knows French")
- 极了 jí le extremely
- 为了 wèi le for; for the purpose of; in order to
- 了不起 liǎo bu qǐ amazing
- 了解 liǎo jiě to understand
- 受不了 shòu bù liǎo unbearable