了

瞭

le, liǎo, liào

乛 + 亅

HSK 2.0Level 1

HSK 3.0Level 1

Definitions

le (particle) (completed action marker); (modal particle indicating change of state)

liǎo (verb) to finish; to achieve; to understand clearly

liǎo (verb) potential complement (to a verb), indicating whether the action is possible

Etymology

Pictograph of a young child, similar to 子, but without arms. Compare to 孑 (child only with right arm) and 孓 (child only with left arm). The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

About

了 originated as a pictograph of a young child without arms, similar to 子 but missing the limbs (compare 孑 and 孓, which show a child with only one arm). Now a phonetic loan, it is pronounced liǎo to mean "to finish", "to conclude", or "to understand clearly", and appears in compounds related to completion. It was later borrowed as the grammatical particle le, attaching to verbs to mark completed action or ending a sentence to signal a change of state. Its structure is minimal, just two strokes with no standard component breakdown, serving primarily syntactic roles rather than carrying independent semantic weight.

Etymology Hide

Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)

Clerical Jin dynasty (266-420 AD)

Traditional Modern

Simplified Modern

Example Sentences Hide

我吃了午饭。

Wǒ chī le wǔfàn.

I ate lunch.

我不去学校了。

Wǒ bù qù xuéxiào le.

I am not going to school anymore.

天气变冷了。

Tiānqì biàn lěng le.

The weather has become cold.

他昨天去了北京。

Tā zuótiān qù le Běijīng.

He went to Beijing yesterday.

她买了一件新衣服。

Tā mǎi le yī jiàn xīn yīfu.

She bought a new piece of clothing.

我了解这个问题。

Wǒ liǎojiě zhège wèntí.

I understand this problem.

我已经完成了作业。

Wǒ yǐjīng wánchéng le zuòyè.

I have already finished my homework.

他把杯子打破了。

Tā bǎ bēizi dǎ pò le.

He broke the cup.

Related Characters

Composed characters:

Component: 乛

Component: 亅

了