了 (le): (completed action marker), (modal particle indicating change of state, situation now), (modal particle intensifying preceding clause)
了 (le) is a Chinese character meaning “(completed action marker).” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 乛 (structural) and 亅 (structural). It ranks #5 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically pictographic, 了 a child swaddled in blanklets; compare 子. Its radical form 亅 (hook) appears in many related characters such as 事 (shì, matter), 争 (zhēng, to strive for), 予 (yú, (archaic) I).
Definitions
- (completed action marker)
- (modal particle indicating change of state, situation now)
- (modal particle intensifying preceding clause)
Etymology & Origin
pictographicA child swaddled in blanklets; compare 子
Decomposition: ⿱乛亅 (layout: top-bottom)
Stroke Order
Practice writing 了 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
HSK Vocabulary with 了
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | HSK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 为了preposition | wèi le | for | 3 |
| 了解verb | liǎo jiě | to understand | 3 |
| 除了preposition | chú le | apart from | 3 |
| 受不了verb | shòu bù liǎo | unbearable | 4 |
| 了不起adjective | liǎo bu qǐ | amazing | 5 |
| 得了verb/particle | dé le | all right! | 6 |
| 不得了adjective | bù dé liǎo | desperately serious | 5 |
| 算了verb/particle | suàn le | let it be | 6 |
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 极了 | jí le | extremely |
| 罢了 | bà le | a modal particle indicating (that's all, only, nothing much) |
| 大不了 | dà bu liǎo | at worst |
| 说了算 | shuō le suàn | to have the final say |
| 了结 | liǎo jié | to settle |
| 对了 | duì le | Correct! |
| 完了 | wán le | to be finished |
| 明了 | míng liǎo | to understand clearly |
| 了如指掌 | liǎo rú zhǐ zhǎng | to know sth like the back of one's hand (idiom) |
| 了断 | liǎo duàn | to bring to a conclusion |
| 受得了 | shòu de liǎo | to put up with |
| 忘不了 | wàng bu liǎo | cannot forget |
| 未了 | wèi liǎo | unfinished |
| 少不了 | shǎo bu liǎo | cannot do without |
| 私了 | sī liǎo | to settle privately |
了 appears in 100 compound words: 21 as the first character, 67 as the last, and 12 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.
Strongest Collocations
Characters that most frequently co-occur with 了 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (13)
Showing 12 of 13 idioms containing 了.
Example Sentences
了字在日常生活中使用频率很高。
le zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ hěn gāo .
The character "了" is used very frequently in daily life.
订单爆了!90后男生春节可赚16万元
dìng dān bào le ! 9 0 hòu nán shēng chūn jié kě zhuàn 1 6 wàn yuán
The order is exploding! Post-90s boys can earn 160,000 yuan during the Spring Festival
...春走基层丨从前有座山,山里有座站,站里来了个“0..
. . . chūn zǒu jī céng 丨 cóng qián yǒu zuò shān , shān lǐ yǒu zuò zhàn , zhàn lǐ lái le gè 0 . .
... Spring to go to the grassroots丨Once upon a time, there was a mountain, there was a station in the mountain, and there was a "0..
AI“硬控”春节档,电影为何更有“人味”了
A I yìng kòng chūn jié dàng , diàn yǐng wéi hé gēng yǒu rén wèi le
AI "hard controls" the Spring Festival file, why is the movie more "human"
大年初三车间灯就亮了,航天老厂通过自研AI平台,稳..
dà nián chū sān chē jiān dēng jiù liàng le , háng tiān lǎo hǎn tōng guò zì yán A I píng tái , wěn . .
On the third day of the Lunar New Year, the workshop lights were turned on, and the old aerospace factory was steadily developed through the self-developed AI platform.
“新春走基层”为了不失联的信号
xīn chūn zǒu jī céng wéi le bù shī lián de xìn hào
"New Year to the grassroots" is a signal not to lose contact
你为什么来了日本？
Nǐ wèishénme lái le Rìběn?
Why did you come to Japan?
你决定去日本了吗？
Nǐ juédìng qù Rìběn le ma?
Did you decide to go to Japan?
你去看过医生了吗？
Nǐ qù kàn guo yīshēng le ma?
Did you go to see a doctor?
你在日本住多久了？
Nǐ zài Rìběn zhù duōjiǔ le?
How long have you lived in Japan?
Character Family
亅 Radical Family — Characters sharing the hook radical
Frequently Asked Questions
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What characters sound the same as 了 (le)?
Is 了 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 了 with real-time feedback
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