The 了 of change of state

Structure Clause + 了 (at the end)

At the END of a sentence, 了 (le) marks a CHANGE: a new situation that wasn’t so before, like "now" or "already". 下雨了 = "it has started to rain" (it wasn’t before). 我饿了 = "(now) I’m hungry". This differs from the 了 after the verb (completed action), though sometimes both senses overlap in one sentence.

Examples

下xià雨yǔ了le。
It’s raining now.
我wǒ饿è了le。
I’m hungry now.
他tā今jīn年nián二èr十shí岁suì了le。
He’s turned twenty this year.

This point and the other 370, with audio on every example, inside Wanyu.

Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play