Expressing completion with le

Also known as: verb 了, completed action 了 and perfective aspect 了.

The particle 了 (le) has a lot of uses. One of the most common is to express the completion of an action. This is called aspect, which is not the same as tense. Tense is about when an action happens - past, present or future. Aspect is about whether the action is complete in whatever time frame we're talking about.

To indicate completeness with 了, the structure is:

Subject + Verb + 了 + Object

Notice that 了 goes directly after the verb. This 了 is called verb 了.

Some examples:

• 上 个 星期五 我 喝 了 五 瓶 啤酒。
• 到 了 红绿灯 以后，往 左 拐。
• 明天 我 吃 了 晚饭 以后 就 跟 朋友 去 咖啡店。

As you can see, 了 can appear in sentences about the past present or future. What's important is whether or not the action has been completed whatever time we're talking about. This means that verb 了 can't be used with habitual or continuous actions.

See also

• Expressing experiences with verbs
• Uses of le

Sources and further reading

Books

• Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar (pp. 185 - 217)
• Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar →buy (pp. 65 - 68)

Websites

• Yale: The Perfective –Le了 Versus The Modal Particle Le了
• East Asia Student: 了 grammar: four kinds of 了 in Mandarin