Question

Help!!! I'm confused about how and when to add "le" in a sentence... Help me please!!!

Answer 1

Dear Chodun,
according to Xinhua Dictionary, there are three situations when you use 'le' in the end of a short sentence. followa verb or adjective which means the behaviour is finished finishs. for example, xie wan le。 2, use as an auxiliary, which usually places in the end,( or in the middow pausally), to mark a new situation. for example, Gua feng le。 3, used with bu or de (不 or 得), pronouncing as" liao" means it is possible or not possible. for example ban bu liao。 ban de liao。

I hope it is making sence.
Regards

Answer 2

thanks!

Answer 3

And there are several set phrases when you use le particle at the end of a sentence.
e.g: 太。。。了。- Tai...le.
太贵了。- tai gui le. - Too expensive

Answer 4

Charles N. Li and Sandra A. Thomson devote 63 pages to discussing the use of the sentence-final particle '-le' in "Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar" (1981, Berkeley: University of California Press) pp 238-300. I hesitate to summarize their discussion in a short posting on this Website.

Here is one quote from page 239: "...'le' is special because it is commonly used in ordinary conversation and at the same time it is difficult for the student of Mandarin to master. It seems to appear in a great variety of speech situations with an equally great variety of semantic implications, and no one has yet succeeded in tying these usages of 'le' together to arrive at a general statement of its semantic and pragmatic function in the language. We will try to do this here."

Look at a good Chinese grammar book in a university library for more information. I imagine you can also buy an inexpensive copy of the book I've cited on a used-books Website.