The usage of “了”

In this video we discuss the usage of the particle “了” after verbs to indicate completion of an action.

It’s similar to the past tense in English. For example： “我喝了一杯牛奶。Wǒ hē le yìbēi niúnǎi. ” means“I drank a glass of milk. ”

The structure is：

“Subject + Verb + 了 +Attribute+ Object”

Please notice that the object needs an Attribute，such as a measure-word, an adjective or a pronoun. For example：

她喝了一杯牛奶。

Tā hē le yìbēi niúnǎi. She drank a glass of milk.

“一杯”is a measure-word.

她买了很多东西。

Tā mǎi le hěn duō dōngxi.

She bought a lot of things.

“很多”is an adjective.

她丢了她的手机。

Tā diū le tā de shǒujī. She lost her cell phone.

“她的”is a pronoun.

Well，you can try to use “了”to answer the question “你今天做了什么？what did you do today？”

The following is Chinese and English Version of Situational Dialogue in the Video：

西西：王小宝，你上周末干了什么？

王小宝：我和朋友去了人民广场，还看了电影。

西西：我上周末也看了电影，还吃了四川菜。

王小宝：四川菜怎么样？

西西：有点儿辣，但是很好吃！

Xīxi：Wang Xiaobao, what did you do last weekend?

Wáng Xiǎobǎo：I went to the People’s Square with my friends and watched a movie.

Xīxi：I also watched a movie last weekend and ate Sichuan food.

Wáng Xiǎobǎo：How about Sichuan food?

Xīxi：It’s a bit spicy, but delicious!

© Shanghai International Studies University