了 le / liǎo / liào in a sentence
(past tense indicator); finish (end); look afar from a high place
了 (le / liǎo / liào) means (past tense indicator), finish (end), look afar from a high place. Below are 24 of the 2713 sentences on this site that use it — with pinyin, an English translation and audio. All of them were written by hand; none is machine generated.
Dictionary examples
Reading these is one thing; producing 了 yourself is another. Cloze in Context takes a sentence from this same bank, removes one word and asks you to put it back — beginner, intermediate and advanced.
From the graded readers
大家鼓掌 了 。
dàjiā gǔzhǎng le / liǎo / liào.
The audience applauded.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · My First Speech
这次有人接 了 。
zhècì yǒurén jiē le / liǎo / liào.
This time somebody answered.
Graded reader · HSK 3 · Losing My Phone
台下有人笑 了 。
tái xià yǒurén xiào le / liǎo / liào.
Someone in the audience laughed.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · My First Speech
他还要 了 一些菜。
tā háiyāo le / liǎo / liào yīxiē cài.
He also ordered some vegetables.
Graded reader · HSK 1 · At the Restaurant
我们喝 了 很多水。
wǒmen hē / hè le / liǎo / liào hěnduō shuǐ.
We drank a lot of water.
Graded reader · HSK 1 · The Weather Today
From the travel phrasebook
From the grammar library
天冷 了 。
Tiān lěng le.
It's got cold.
Grammar library · HSK 2 · 了 — completed action and change of state
他昨天来 了 。
Tā zuótiān lái le.
He came yesterday.
Grammar library · HSK 2 · 了 — completed action and change of state
我十八岁 了 。
Wǒ shíbā suì le.
I've turned eighteen.
Grammar library · HSK 2 · 了 — completed action and change of state
快十二点 了 。
Kuài shí'èr diǎn le.
It's nearly twelve o'clock.
Grammar library · HSK 2 · 快…了 / 要…了 — about to happen
了 appears in 2713 sentences on this site; the 24 shortest and most direct are shown. The rest are on the pages they were written for — the graded readers, the phrasebook and the grammar library.
Words that contain 了
Each of these has sentences of its own, so you can see the character doing a different job in each one.
Questions about 了
How is 了 used in a sentence?
This page shows 2713 sentences using 了 (le / liǎo / liào, "(past tense indicator), finish (end), look afar from a high place"), each with pinyin, an English translation and audio. Every one of them was written by hand for this site.
Are these sentences machine generated?
No. They come from the site's own dictionary examples, graded readers, travel phrasebook and grammar library — all written by a person. A word with no sentence gets no page here, rather than a page of invented ones.
Why do some sentences show 了 inside a longer word?
Because that is where a single character usually lives. Seeing 了 inside the words it builds is how the character stops being an isolated symbol and starts being something you can read.
Is 了 an HSK word?
Yes — 了 is on the official HSK 1 vocabulary list, and you can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 1 page.
Where can I see the full entry for 了?
The dictionary page for 了 has its stroke order, its traditional form, every sense the dictionary lists and a character-by-character breakdown. It is linked at the top of this page.
Keep going
Read the full entry for 了, write a sentence of your own and check it in the Pinyin Annotator, drill it with HSK 1 flashcards, or search the whole sentence bank for another word.
Another word
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