How to say 了

  • Traditional characters: 了
  • Pinyin (Taiwan standard): le
  • Zhuyin (bopomofo): ˙ㄌㄜ
  • Meaning: completed-action marker (goes right after the verb)

Hear it in a Taiwan accent:

了 in example sentences

Real lines from CiaoSpeak’s graded stories, each with pinyin, an English translation and Taiwan-accent audio.

吃飯了！吃飯了！

chī fàn le chī fàn le

Lunchtime! Lunchtime!

From the story 狗！ (The Dog!)

老師來了！

lǎo shī lái le

The teacher's coming!

From the story 你是老師嗎？ (Are You a Teacher?)

我要走了！

wǒ yào zǒu le

I've gotta run!

From the story 你是老師嗎？ (Are You a Teacher?)

我家的冷氣壞了…房東說下禮拜才來修。

wǒ jiā de lěng qì huài le fáng dōng shuō xià lǐ bài cái lái xiū

My AC's broken... the landlord says he can't come fix it until next week.

From the story 三十六度 (Thirty-Six Degrees)

你看，冷氣壞了也有好處——你今天認識了剉冰。

nǐ kàn lěng qì huài le yě yǒu hǎo chù nǐ jīn tiān rèn shì le cuò bīng

See? A broken AC has an upside — today you met shaved ice.

From the story 三十六度 (Thirty-Six Degrees)

Where 了 is taught

  • Unit level: TOCFL Novice 2 (CiaoSpeak’s placement, not the official TOCFL word list)
  • Unit: Sentence Basics
  • Lesson: Talking About What Happened
  • Taught just before: 去
  • Taught just after: 我去了