Basic Grammar: all 87 lessons free
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了 — Where It Sits Is What It Means
了 — 放在哪儿，意思就在哪儿
One little 了, three jobs: something happened, something changed, or 太……了 too much. Where it sits in the sentence is what it means.
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Memory hook
General? Sentence-end. Specific? Right after the verb.
Six sentences, four jobs
Tap any line — and check where 了 sits before you check what the sentence means.
Tap any line to hear it
Memory hook
没 deletes 了 — unless 了 means change
Where does 了 sit?「了」坐哪儿？
No pressure — just making it stick.
我昨天吃____两碗米饭。
Wǒ zuótiān chī ____ liǎng wǎn mǐfàn.
I ate two bowls of rice yesterday.
我们周末去看电影____。
Wǒmen zhōumò qù kàn diànyǐng ____.
We went to see a movie at the weekend.
我昨天____喝啤酒。
Wǒ zuótiān ____ hē píjiǔ.
I didn't drink beer yesterday.
他以前喜欢足球，现在喜欢篮球____。
Tā yǐqián xǐhuan zúqiú, xiànzài xǐhuan lánqiú ____.
He used to like football; now he likes basketball.
Which reply fits?
Ouch. What was true before?
Your turn — say it
我饿了。
I'm hungry (now).
Your turn — say it
这个太贵了！
This is way too expensive!
This lesson's characters
了 itself, and two places it loves to land: 太累了, 下雨了.
done; changed
象drawn from life
子 is a baby with both arms flung out. Bind the arms inside the swaddling cloth and you get 了 — the same baby, wrapped up. Read liǎo it still means to finish, to wrap up: 了结 is settling a matter for good. The grammar word le is that same liǎo worn smooth by speed — said unstressed a few million times until the tone rubbed off. A completed action, marked by a word whose own sound got completed away.
tired
形meaning + sound
The bottom is 糸, silk thread, and the meaning starts there: to wind on, to pile up, one loop after another. The top 田 is the survivor of 畾 — three fields stacked high — which lent the sound. Read lěi it still means to accumulate. Read lèi it means what accumulating does to you: tired. 太累了 is the whole character used as a diagnosis — too much piled on.
rain
象drawn from life
The top stroke is the sky; the frame hangs down from it and the four dots are the drops on their way. Three thousand years of writing reform barely touched this character — rain looked like this on oracle bones and it looks like this out the window. 下雨了: the drops are down, the situation is new, cancel accordingly.
Take these with you
Everything worth taking away. Tap any line to hear it.
Words 生词
Characters 汉字
Before you go课后回顾
- Tonight, report one thing that actually happened: general at the end (我去爬山了) or counted after the verb (我喝了两杯咖啡). Decide the position before you speak.
- Catch one change today and announce it: 下雨了。我饿了。啤酒涨价了。The world moves; 了 files the report.
- 了 is not the English past tense. 我以前经常去这家饭店吃饭 — years of past, and not a 了 in sight.
- One for next lesson: 你怎么了？ — what's up with you? The 了 is the change; the 怎么 arrives next class.