Start Using 了 (le) Correctly in Chinese: When & Why to Use It at the End of a Sentence
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 พ.ค. 2024
- Have you been struggling with using 了 (le) in Chinese? Understanding the function of 了 is important to master its use. This video will help you understand why and when to use 了 in Chinese by demonstrating how it is used in real-life situations.
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⚡️ Time code:
00:00 Introduction
00:22 Two types of 了
00:54 Why 了 is Used at The End of a Sentence
01:47 Function #1: Indicate a change of state
04:42 Function #2: Continuing to the present
07:14 Function #3: Expressing “already”
10:37 Function #4: Express “Time to…” or “Stop…” in Imperative Sentences
12:05 Function #5 Used in Fixed Patterns or Phrases
14:26 Recap
16:43 Thank you for watching to the end!
✏️ [ 了1 vs. 了2 ]
As I mentioned in the video, there are two types of 了. One is usually attached to a verb (了1 - indicating an action has occurred or is completed), and the other one is typically added at the end of a sentence (了2 - its functions are mentioned in the video).
Q: But what if there is a sentence that ends with a verb and a 了? Then is it 了1 or 了2?
Answer: It depends.
It can be a combination of the two. For example,
我們都畢業了。(Simplified: 我们都毕业了) - Translation: We have all graduated.
It expresses that both the event 畢業/毕业 (to graduate) is completed (the usage of 了1), and also there is a change of state (the usage of 了2).
Certain contexts can also limit the “了” to have only one interpretation:
他瘦了。(He has lost weight.)
Because “losing weight” can’t be completed and it’s a change of state, people will use the meaning of “了2” to interpret it (as a change of state).
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You produce without a doubt some of the most useful videos on the Chinese language there are.
Thank you.
Thank you! 🥰
Great content! what I liked the most about this content was providing examples from Chinese dramas, daily Chinese dialogues. This is what 外国人 needs
Mother came back
了 is definitely a killer. But you are one of the best people on the internet to explain stuff!!
Your words just made my day! Thank you so much 😉
You're welcome. I mean it! ☺️
Best video of 了 that I have watched in my life !
This is excellent: thank you so much! This little word has been puzzling me for a while now.
I love your videos because they are so thorough, but also to the point, and well organized. Your hard work is so appreciated! I also really appreciate most of the example sentences being short. It makes it easier for a beginner like me who can't recognize higher level vocabulary yet. Sentences like "ni hen li hai" are easy for me to understand while grasping the concept, and I'm able to learn it quickly. 😇
This is so useful! I remember when I started my Chinese course I was SO curious to find out about 了 because I kept seeing it everywhere but couldn't find a clear explanation that covered all the examples I saw. The professor eventually covered it, but only partially, so I continued to be confused. But not any more! Thank you!
Yay I’m glad that this video has cleared up your confusion!! 🥳
Very useful video that highlights the different nuances of using 了!
Thank you Peter! ✨
Very helpful, thanks for sharing this ❤
Very detailed and informative! The example sentences as well as clips from shows/movies makes it much easier to grasp in context! Thank you very much Grace!!
Thanks a lot Tr.Grace!
Thanks I needed this
this is by far the best explanation of 了! :))) most textbooks (especially beginner level) just talk about changes of state or say it indicates past tense which can be very confusing
This is an extremely valuable video. Thank you so much Grace!
Thank you! 🥰
Great video! Thank you!
Awesome video thanks ❤❤❤
Amazing~ 謝謝你 ❤
Awesome video on 了. Thanks! Some other languages do have a word a bit similar to 了, but it seems English doesn’t really have a close equivalent, at least not in only one word🤔Definitely a difficult word, but you teach it really well!
Thank you!!
Awesome video Grace :)
강의 너무 좋아요!! from Korea
Thank you for this video Grace, i rly like it. I want to see the drama home with kids, it looks very funny 😊 thank you for the ref.
Thanks❤
Thanks!
It's very useful. Now, I don't worry about how to explain 了 in different situations for my friends.
Haha right! You can just send this video to them😉
Very nice explanations, your video really helped me :)
do you have a list of the movies and series that you used here? i would really like to find more media to help my studies
Hey, Grace, my name is Reggie.I really like your videos and the way that you teach. I spend 5 to 6 hours per day watching Chinese language videos of just about every type that I can find. Most of which is far over my grade level. I'm a complete novice, just starting 2 months ago. And I don't comprehend much of anything at all, yet. However, in the video examples that you are using on this particular lesson I can't hear those people use "Le" at all in their dialogs. I know that it is because they are speaking at normal Chinese language speeds. My ear hasn't adapted to the tone and tenor of the Chinese voices, yet. Even so, that means that I've got a long way to go. I've been watching Chinese movies with subtitles but I do my best not to read the subtitles. So that I can focus on the conversations in the movies. Sometimes, my brain wants to know what is going on, and my eyes are forced on to the subtitles. Then I take control back and listen intently to what is being spoken between the actors. I can recognize some few words that I've managed to etch into the concrete so far. Most of what the actors say go unrecognized by me because of them speaking normally. I hope that at age 72, I'm able to tune up my listening ability so that I'll get to the point relatively soon where I can begin to hear with understanding what is being talked about in your natural language so that it will become mine too. I have one additional issue, in listening, I have tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, which also interferes with my hearing with understanding what is being talked about. Anyway, Grace, I love what you do and hope that you don't stop teaching us. Thank you Grace. I'm watching your videos in the city of Hemet, in Riverside county, California on TH-cam. My drive to learn Chinese came about because I watch a lot of news on what's going on in China, and I want both to be able to hear, read, write and speak the Chinese language. To get a clear understanding about what is happening to your people. For now I'm just an infant and hope to become a fully fledged adult before too much longer, comprehending what is being spoken and displayed on the screen in writing.
Thank you Reggie! I'm glad you love my work. 加油 with your Chinese study！💪
明白了！😊
Now we need also a video on 了， when it sounds “liao”
Also it would be interesting to see a video on 得
waaah the past tense of chinese
nice video Grace, time to watch it now
Hi friend 💞
@@ravigowdaravigowda9504 oh hii
@@SuAmazing Hi friend 🌹
@@ravigowdaravigowda9504 Hii~
@@SuAmazing 我很想和你成为朋友
Good
訂閱後第一次收到通知，認出學姐了！
哈哈終於！😆
わああ！ありがとうございます😊
Yo the new 了 vid is 🔥
😎😎🔥
This is well organised, Grace😊 It must've difficult to make it a 17 minutes long video!
Thank you Rio! It did take a lot of time, but I'm really glad it came out the way I wished it to be 🥰
@@GraceMandarinChinese oohh, that's awesome~
I’ve been trying to learn Mandarin and when listening to some native Chinese people speak, there is a word/sound that is sometimes spoken at the end of a sentence that sound like “uh” or “huh” with a bit of attitude. It kind of sounds like the person is trying to express that what they said is important or suggesting approval from those listening.
Yay this is somewhat similar to the Tagalog "na"
Thanks for this video. I knew some of the usages before but had forgotten and definitely didn't know them all.
On another note, I've been sitting here for the past 5 minutes saying "video" over and over, trying to identify why it's so difficult for Chinese speakers to say naturally. I wonder if it's because it relies on cutting off the short "i" sound with the beginning of the "d" sound. I can say it without doing that but it's kind of strange. If I start with making the "v" sound by itself it comes out like "veh" (unless I just go like "vvvvv"). Then I can progressively change that into more of a "vih" sound that has roughly the same length as the "veh" sound. Then if I try combine that with "deo" it doesn't sound super natural. "Vih-deo". Not bad, exactly, but a bit stilted. However if I intentionally cut off the "vih" sound with the being of the "d" sound (by putting my tongue on the roof of my mouth and blocking all the airflow), it suddenly sounds much more natural. So my conclusion is, for it to sound natural, you need a short "i" sound that is followed closely by the beginning of the "d" sound.
Anyway, when we get to nitpicking the pronunciation of specific words you know you're doing well at a language lol. Maybe one day I'll even figure out how to make the Chinese "r" sound like in 人.
These are some awesome tips!! Thank you so much! I’ve been struggling with pronouncing it for a long time 🤣
This is awesome! By the way, what is the title of the song in the ending?
Haha I generated that song on Suno. It doesn’t have an official name😝
@@GraceMandarinChinese Haha.That's why I couldn't find any info🤣
Anyway, thank you for your video and reply!
@@GraceMandarinChinese Ahhh I wondered why it sounded kind of strange.
When talking about 死了 I remember the positive counterpart 極了。
Very informative and light hearted😊
Hello Grace, how can I get movies that have both pinyin and English subtitles?
您有没有计划从生成或者认知语言学的角度谈谈这个问题？
Hi Grace, can you suggest me some good books or novels in Chinese?
Hi Grace. I have a question, where I can't find an answer to. Maybe you can help. Sometimes the 了 "le" sounds for me like "la". For example in 知道了(zhī dào le).
0:28
what are those characters on first row ?
i have not seeing that again, i am hsk2
(i am talking about on top of the sentence)
It’s bopomofo (Zhuyin). I’ve talked about it in this video: th-cam.com/video/AKH5IHhbUUA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=MAU8L-s4Tp2GdkQB
For your reference 😉
Hao le
Teacher ,i want to know the differences between mandarin , nanjing dialect and hunanese dialect please
bu yao and bie can also means don't
Is TH-cam working in China and is it monetized
Very useful!
Could you explain proverb 大不了 please?
it means "at the worst" or "it is ok even in the worst situation……". In this proverb, 了 is "liao" and not "le" in pronunciation.
@@user-ft5vc1un1p thnx mr Wikipedia
teacher always said accent is not a problem is pronouciation same with learning spanish
“他三天没洗澡了”😂🤣hahaha ewww
🤣🤣🤣髒死了
谢谢Grace老师 ！(⁎⁍̴̛ᴗ⁍̴̛⁎)
I've heard Chinese people put le at the end of a sentence with no apparent reason and when I've aksed them why they did it they mostly can't give a reason other than 'it just sounds right'
This happens a lot in any language. Native speakers are not dissecting (and don't have a need to dissect) their own language because they've acquired it as a child without formally learning the rules in the same way someone learning the language later on would. Therefore, they know what "sounds right," but wouldn't necessarily know the reason why or the exact mechanics of it.
Good new haircut
半了了。
Why it's not 我认识了他5年了?
Why it's not 那部电影我看了3次了?
“了” in Chinese does not equate to the past tense, so you don’t need to add “了” after every past action. If you want to emphasize that you have completed the action “看”, you can say, “那部电影我看了3次了”, but in the context I provided in the video, it’s not needed. For “我认识他5年了”, it’s rather unnatural to emphasize the completion of “knowing someone” when you’re talking about how long you have known each other. Therefore, I wouldn’t recommend adding “了” after “认识” in this sentence, unless it’s really important in some contexts to emphasize the completion or occurrence of that action.
This is an interesting topic-when exactly “了” is needed after verbs is really intriguing. I’m planning to look into this further and might make a new video about it. Stay tuned! :)
@@GraceMandarinChinese That is the hardest topic. Chinese uses 了1 to indicate completed ACTIONS, but, for us Westerners, we can't see clearly when a verb is an action or not. I know 看，说，做 are actions and 是，有，在 are not. But I'm not sure if 让，穿，得 are.
it's just past tense.
看完了這影片才了解"了"字有這麼多功用.但老師那位朋友可別鬧了.不該用同一吸管喝那甜的飲品.算了別怪她了
對啊別怪她了 畢竟是同一個人😎
不過在台灣，很熟的朋友喝飲料用同根吸管還算常見😂（至少在我的朋友圈不會太奇怪）
句號是。，括號是「」。
.
I like chainis girl 💘🌹💞👍
It should read I am impressed not impressive