了le

了

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Simplified · Today

简体

Simplified Chinese

Modern simplified form (簡體). 了 (le) appears identical in simplified and traditional, a humble hook that began as 尞, an ancient character meaning "to finish" or "complete." Now it serves as China's most versatile grammatical particle, marking completed actions, changed states, or adding emphasis to exclamatory sentences.

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Shuowen

了, the bent hook, depicts a curved tool or hand used to finish or complete work, originally meaning "to finish" in oracle bone inscriptions. The character is composed of a vertical stroke and a curved hook from the radical 亅, capturing the shape of bending or finishing. Over time, it shifted from its concrete meaning to serve as a perfective aspect marker in modern Chinese, indicating completed actions.

Pinyin

le· HSK 1· Radical 亅

了le

Character evolution

Shuowen

Pinyin