Take the 2-minute tour ×



share|improve this question

3 Answers 3

up vote 17 down vote accepted






With imperatives, it adds urgency:

走了, 走了

(Let's) go, (let's) go.

So, a negative imperative becomes a warning:


(Keep quiet.)



(I'm warning you [to]) stop talking!

With certain modifiers you can use 了 to indicate future tense:

天就要下雨了（it's raining soon)



我餓 (I'm hungry)


我餓了 (I became hungry)

Here 了 expresses a clear (change of) state.

了 can also be used to express excessiveness.





share|improve this answer
"With certain modifiers you can use 了 to indicate future tense" - yikes! This really is going to take some time to get my head round :} –  Cocowalla Dec 13 '11 at 22:37
I think sometimes the 了 is used just because it sounds right. –  Matthew Rudy 马泰 Dec 14 '11 at 6:17
I think you can also use 了 when expressing surprise or emphasis. e.g. 太好了! Although in this case its use is within an idiomatic expression and should therefore be learnt as a unit. –  jaffa Jan 3 '12 at 23:35


Chi fan le, finished eating.

share|improve this answer
I understand that, but from other uses I've seen it appears to be more complex than that –  Cocowalla Dec 13 '11 at 22:35
@Cocowalla: Yes, there are more complex usages. I've given you the simplest one. –  Tom Au Dec 13 '11 at 22:36
@Cocowalla Chi Fan Le DO NOT means finished eating. Instead that, like a mom want to call for her children to eat: "孩子们，吃饭了"(boys, time for meal) –  AntiGameZ Dec 14 '11 at 10:49
@AntiGameZ what about nǐ chī le ma? - does that not mean, have you eaten? –  Cocowalla Dec 14 '11 at 11:03
@Cocowalla no, 了 in 你吃了吗 means have you eaten, which suggests a completed action. –  AntiGameZ Dec 14 '11 at 11:08







太冷了 Too cold!

share|improve this answer
In your 太冷了 example, does have any effect on the tense of that statement? –  Cocowalla Nov 24 '14 at 16:08
@Cocowalla The way I understand it, you have to add 了, otherwise it will sound weird to native speakers. –  Friso1990 Nov 26 '14 at 22:05

Your Answer


