Le 了 Explained | 6 Usages You NEED to Know【Chinese Grammar】

Hey hey, Rita aka Fàn lǎoshī here! Ready to use my 10-year Chinese teaching experience to help you master this almighty yet confusing Chinese particle - 了!
I’ve lost count of how many times I was asked about this word by Chinese learners at different levels! Being the arguably most difficult word in Mandarin Chinese, it definitely takes a while to get all of its uses in varied contexts and tones of voice.
More importantly, how do we use it correctly and properly? Nothing would be clearer than a collection of sentence structures with 了.
In this video, I’ll walk you through more than 6 usages of 了 that are linked to each other:
0:00 Intro
1:09 verb suffix
3:26 sentence-final 了
5:15 have (not) been doing
6:24 soon 了
7:34 modal particle
8:41 fixed structures
Leave your thoughts or any questions about Chinese learning that you have in the comments! They may be answered in my next video soon!
Btw your subscription, like and comment are HUGE support for original content like this video! The more my videos are promoted to Chinese learners by KZbin algorithm, the more motivated I will be to make content for you all! It means the world to me. 谢谢！
Remember, with Fàn lǎoshī, Chinese makes perfect sense!
Reference:
Chinese Grammar without Tears by Xiaoxing Zhu
Integrated Chinese 2 by Yuehua Liu & Tao-chung Yao, Nyan-Ping Bi, Liangyan Ge, Yaohua Shi
Yuzhi Shi’s Weibo post
《试析“V了O“、”VO了“与”V了O了“在语料中的分布情况》 三宅登之
“Balcony” CCTV Spring Festival Gala 2021
The Bad Kids EP03 04 10
The Long Night EP01
Back to field S4 EP0
Qiang Qiang Xing Tian Xia S2 EP01
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My Chinese Tidbits (Vocab/Flash Cards/Pop Quiz/Listening Exercise) on Instagram: / funchineseclub
Personal Account: / rita_van
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#ChineseGrammarLe #ChineseGrammar了 #Chinese GrammarforBeginners
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#ImproveSpokenChinese # ImproveChineseGrammar #ChineseSentenceStructures #howtouse了

[@LaomaChris]

Great summary 范老师！

[@RitaChinese]

谢谢马老师啦😆🙌

[@mandarinjourneyswithnanno]

@@RitaChinese you should make a video on his Chinese

[@AngelMorales-qn8bf]

Amazing. Been studying Chinese for over 7 years and I had never found anything like this. The best explanation of le ❤️❤️❤️.

[@RitaChinese]

Glad it was helpful! 😊

[@citronmirab3083]

Your content is of a such quality! i love it thanks

[@leandrocimarolli3885]

I just love how you explain things. The examples are great as well. Thanks a lot for making this challenge a little bit easier!

[@RitaChinese]

Glad to hear that you found my videos helpful! It's my huge pleasure😄🙌 加油！

[@michaeldavide5421]

我爱这视频! 太有助了. 谢谢范老师!

[@RitaChinese]

不客气！你觉得有帮助就太好啦😄🙌

[@michaeldavide5421]

@@RitaChinese 对！我写错了。谢谢！

[@rocio146]

I learned so much with this! Many usages I didn't know about! Thank youuuuuu!

[@RitaChinese]

Always my pleasure! So happy that you found my video useful😄🙌

[@MarkusBlue]

YAY CONGRATS! AWESOME VIDEO. Thank you for your work!

[@RitaChinese]

My great pleasure! And thank you, Markus!! Your watching and comments really mean so much to me😊

[@MarkusBlue]

@@RitaChinese Ofcourse! You literally make it so easy!

[@timothydouglas9474]

老师，谢谢你的解释的！ 记得视频很有用

[@digthewarmth]

Excellent video! Thank you!! A lot of sentences I've seen ending in 了make sense to me now. Yay!

[@RitaChinese]

Yayyy awesome! Glad you find this video helpful! 😄

[@timothydouglas9474]

我塞尔维亚語学了五月了，塞尔维亚語太棒了，跟国语很不一样的

[@midinette]

Omg I think this is the ultimate 了 video! Thank you for explaining this !!!

[@RitaChinese]

Yayy glad you find it helpful!! So happy to hear it😊🙌 Feel free to share it with your friends! 😄❤

[@benjaminjohnston6587]

I'm a new subscriber and it is great content! I will be visiting this channel regularly. Cheers. PS i'm also a follower of Chris! Thanks to you both.

[@T-Bo.]

謝謝, Fàn lǎoshī！

[@RitaChinese]

不客气！对学习中文的朋友有帮助就好😊🙌

[@svc6550]

Best le video I have seen

[@jssmedialangs]

我今天正在看您的课，我订阅了 ! 😄 我觉得它们是好玩儿和有用 。谢谢老师 !

[@RitaChinese]

哈哈太好了！我很开心你觉得我的视频很有用😄

[@theoneexplorer6197]

Amazing , i got so many things. 谢谢你

[@RitaChinese]

不客气！Glad you find it useful!

[@isaacfinestone7163]

谢谢范老师！今天学了很多

[@RitaChinese]

太棒了！太开心了😆

[@himeshsingh5993]

You teach well...easily understandable. How to learn Chinese from scratch with your channel.

[@MarkusBlue]

thank u!

[@rodrigowarde7259]

It's quite difficult to master all uses of "le", this video is truly a heavens sent gift :D Thanks for the video Fan Laoshi!

[@RitaChinese]

Yay glad you found it helpful! It's not easy to master 了's uses, and it was not easy to make a video explaining them, either😆 Guess we all did a good job😄🙌

[@MarkusBlue]

what a huge summary about le!

[@RitaChinese]

Hahah was not easy to do it for sure, but I like how it came out finally!! Hope 了 makes more sense to Chinese learners now!

[@MarkusBlue]

@@RitaChinese Ofcourse!

[@maxgoodman2986]

Thank you for another great, informative video! (the Invisalign is adorable, btw 😀)

[@RitaChinese]

You’re very welcome!! Hahaha and thanks😁🙌 I’m still getting used to speaking with it!

[@eddie-fv9nd]

i love the drama "the bad kids"!!! great explanation

[@RitaChinese]

Yeah it's a great show!! And my huge pleasure😊💪

[@weikruse9869]

范老师讲得真棒🌹💐赞👍💖😊

[@RitaChinese]

谢谢谢谢！你每次都看我的视频，还留言告诉我喜欢我的内容--你也太棒了😄👏

[@weikruse9869]

@@RitaChinese 不客气！因为您的视频教学很好，生动又活泼，英文又好，所以我很喜欢！也跟您一起学习👍🌹💖💐🍀

[@joysun228]

范老师，sometimes 了 is also read as liao. 吃不了 Chi bu liao 😭 How do you know when it's le or liao?

[@renatamirkova5412]

A student of mine, with whom I shared this video asked me what is the difference between 该 and 应该. I have to admit I hadn't thought about it before! I just use it the way I've been hearing Chinese people using it without going deep into the proper usage or meaning. I found some nice explanation in Chinese, but not many teachers covering it on YT! *wink wink*

[@RitaChinese]

haha thanks for the idea! (Or did I translate it a bit already in the video?) That's def an interesting point to explain more for sure! although great Chinese learners like you may have mastered it by carefully hearing how natives speak😉👏

[@fuleienchina4753]

我等过你的视频很久！ 现在我可以更好地了解“了”的不同的位置。请问，在“我放了盐了”中，第一“了”表示行动完成（我完成了放盐这个行动），而第二“了”表示新状态（饭以前没有盐，现在有了），是不是？

[@RitaChinese]

哈哈希望没有让你等太久！我觉得你的理解是可以的👍👍 或者认为第一个”了“是在强调真的完成了，也可以！

[@aprendiz5873]

♥️

[@hannesh234]

While saying there is no tenses in modern Chinese, does that mean there were tenses in ancient Chinese?

[@denizenn314]

Fàn lǎoshī, this video is wow! thank you! It is the best and most fun video on 了 I've seen : ))) I am kind of obsessed with 天快要亮了. I understand it means "it's almost dawn", "the sky will be bright soon" ... but still ... - is 亮 an adjective or a verb in this case? Is it a crazy question? : )))

[@RitaChinese]

It’s actually a very good question! 亮 is an adjective in this case, and it emphasizes the change that will happen in the structure. There’s a vague boundary between adjectives and verbs in Chinese, so it could be a bit confusing sometimes!

[@denizenn314]

​@@RitaChinese Thank you so much for your reply! Aiii, pretty basic point, but I didn't know this. Chinese adjectives - not exactly what English calls adjectives ^^

[@alexandrasieh1397]

You're as awesome as ever! (Pssst: Let's get you back to Beijing soon! We need a nice long coffee chat!)

[@RitaChinese]

FOR SURE! Can't wait!! And thanks, Alex! You're so supportive as always❤❤

[@biaowang2497]

范老师体恤衫真好看…在哪买的？

[@Ore890]

您好范老师。我有问题。为什么您些 ”现在” 还有 “是了”？Please correct my sentence if there are mistakes. Thank you for the video.

[@user-bi1ns9gd6x]

Hahaha 0:44 that happens to my brain as well.

[@RitaChinese]

hahah I can imagine😆 But actually it just takes time to see more sentences with different uses then you will figure it out eventually! 💪😄🙌

[@T-Bo.]

0:28 Why is the translation of 放盐了啊 censored? It just means "add salt + le + a" Edit: maybe because the joke can't be translated correctly into English? When I first read it I thought it might have some kind of vulgar meaning

[@RitaChinese]

Yeah exactly! The joke in the skit was the sentence "放盐了啊" explained in two different, or let's say opposite, ways! So I didn't write any of them in the first place, but explained later and also talked about how to clarify the meanings when we wanna use the structures😊

[@ChinaTalkMedia]

wooooO!!!

[@RitaChinese]

YAYYYYY🙌😄

[@darian5428]

我还记得上大学的时候，中文老师说她j觉得“了”字在中文当中是最复杂的概念之一。她说她都写过关于“了”的论文哈哈哈

[@RitaChinese]

哈哈哈有太多写“了“的论文了，但好像还没有完全研究清楚！还是多听多用吧😆💪

[@miaomiaopaopao]

深了。

[@sidneychenarts]

I think this is the first time I've had the present perfect progressive illustrated in Chinese -- it's always been unclear to me why there'd be a need for two 了s in a sentence. 謝謝！[UPDATE: I just wrote a S V 了 time duration 了 sentence in an email and am 揚揚得意]

[@RitaChinese]

hahah AWESOME! Language learning feels so rewarding, isn't it? 😄👏 Proud of you!

[@jaredyu7407]

This is just a suggestion, and I know you already work really hard to provide this learning material for free to the public. From personal experience, learning from videos isn’t too easy. It’s simplified for me when I write everything down on notes so that the overall lesson can be slowly grasped. I think that if you helped provide a brief pdf file of the lesson’s topics it could maybe help make your lessons clearer. I maybe am just being lazy, but this is just an idea from one learner’s perspective.

[@RitaChinese]

Hey Jared, thanks for the suggestion! It did take forever to make a video like this, and tbh, this is not supposed to be a lesson, but a round-up of usages of 了 based on my teaching experience and research. If it's a paid course, all sorts of materials and exercise will be included for sure😆 And as you said, writing down or taking notes def work better for you and for myself too. Maybe you can try do it yourself so you would be more actively involved in the learning process, and maybe you will get it and master it faster!

[@sq7755]

I usually take screenshots of videos and use those as notes. 🙂 If I really want to remember something, I will use a screenshot as wallpaper on my devices! 😃

[@pm0808]

Why is there two different pronunciation of le? Le vs. Liao? What's the difference

[@RitaChinese]

Good question! liao is more like a real verb meaning "finish" as in 了解 or the complement 吃不了😊

[@fredsaga3708]

great silky hair

[@zulkiflijamil4033]

我吃饭了。

[@vservicesvservices7095]

了不就是语助词，用来强调语气的吗？多数的完整句子好象把「了」去掉，意思也还是在的呀？除了很短的语句中，了好象只是让句子顺一点。

[@reemmohammed362]

Can you speak more slowly