liǎo
了 (liǎo) is a Chinese word meaning “to finish; (used with 得[de2] or 不[bu4] after a verb to express (im)possibility, as in 忘不了[wang4 bu5 liao3] "cannot forget"); (literary) (usually followed by a negative such as 無|无[wu2] or 不[bu4]) completely (not); entirely (not); (not) in the least”.
Meanings
- 1to finish
- 2(used with 得[de2] or 不[bu4] after a verb to express (im)possibility, as in 忘不了[wang4 bu5 liao3] "cannot forget")
- 3(literary) (usually followed by a negative such as 無|无[wu2] or 不[bu4]) completely (not); entirely (not); (not) in the least
- 4to understand clearly (variant of 瞭|了[liao3])
- Part of speech
- verb
Related words
了(completed action marker)了(of eyes) bright了unofficial variant of 瞭[liao4]为了for; for the purpose of; in order to了解to understand了解to understand极了extremely除了apart from; besides; in addition to (used to exclude, as in 除了他，誰也沒來|除了他，谁也没来[chu2 le5 ta1 , shei2 ye3 mei2 lai2] "apart from him, nobody came", or to include, as in 除了英語，他也會法語|除了英语，他也会法语[chu2 le5 Ying1 yu3 , ta1 ye3 hui4 Fa3 yu3] "in addition to English, he also knows French")罢了a modal particle indicating (that's all, only, nothing much)罢了a modal particle indicating (don't mind it, ok)受不了unbearable了不起amazing