了 in 6,730 Clauses of the Chinese Bible
Answering: “what does 了 mean in Chinese”
Updated 2026-09-26 · plain text · JSON
了 after a verb marks the action as complete; 了 at the end of a clause marks a new state of affairs. The 和合本 uses both, and the two are told apart by where 了 sits.
- HSK level
- 1
- derived from its own words
- In the Bible
- 6,730
- clauses
- Meet it first in
- Genesis
- where it is commonest
- How sure
- Counted
- 100% of a checked sample
Practise it
Tap the words that carry the pattern.
，。
The same verses, in full
Easiest first: ranked by how much of each verse sits at or below HSK 1, the point’s own level. Colours are tones. Nothing here was written for the page — every line is in the text.
那nà人rén就jiù起来qǐ lái，回家huí jiā去qù了le。
He arose and departed to his house.
Matthew 9:7 · 100% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
我们wǒ men上shàng了le船chuán，他们tā men就jiù回家huí jiā去qù了le。
After saying goodbye to each other, we went on board the ship, and they returned home again.
Acts 21:6 · 89% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
他tā生shēng了le七qī个gè儿子ér zi，三sān个gè女儿nǚ ér。
There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.
Job 1:2 · 89% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
我wǒ却què认识rèn shi他tā；因为yīn wèi我wǒ是shì从cóng他tā来lái的de，他tā也yě是shì差chāi了le我wǒ来lái。」
I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”
John 7:29 · 89% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
就jiù对duì那nà人rén说shuō：「起来qǐ lái，走zǒu吧ba！你nǐ的de信xìn救jiù了le你nǐ了le。」
Then he said to him, “Get up, and go your way. Your faith has healed you.”
Luke 17:19 · 87% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
起来qǐ lái！我们wǒ men走zǒu吧ba。看kàn哪nǎ，那nà卖mài我wǒ的de人rén近jìn了le！」
Arise! Let’s get going. Behold, he who betrays me is at hand.”
Mark 14:42 · 85% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
Go and meet it in the text
- Read Matthew 9 — where the first example above comes from, with every word tappable.
- The rest of HSK 1 grammar — the other points at this level, with their counts.
- The HSK 1 word deck — the vocabulary side, ordered by how often the Bible uses it.
What the Bible does with it
了 has two jobs and one form. After a verb it marks the action as finished — 杀了扫罗, killed Saul. At the end of a clause it says a new situation has come about — 桑拉死了, Samlah died, with the emphasis on what is now the case. The genealogies of Chronicles use the second of these dozens of times in a row, which makes them an unexpectedly good place to meet it.
The Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified) uses 了 6,737 times. 7 of those occurrences are the same words doing something else.
The segmenter reads 了 as le rather than liǎo almost everywhere, and the handful of liǎo readings are the verb 'to finish'. Because the reading is part of the rule, those are excluded rather than counted.
The rule is: 了 read le. Where it ends the clause it marks a new state of affairs; anywhere else it follows the verb it completes. 30 of its 6,730 matches were drawn at random and checked one by one; 100% were right. Recall is not measured, so the figure is what this rule finds, not everything the translation contains.
| Word | Reading | HSK | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|---|
| 了 | le | 1 | 6,730 |
| 了 | liǎo | 1 | 6 |
| 了 | liào | 1 | 1 |
The HSK column is the level data/dict.json gives the word, and it is what puts this point at level 1.
| Occurrences | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| the construction | 6,730 | 100% |
| the same words doing something else | 7 | 0% |
| Book | Clauses |
|---|---|
| Genesis | 637 |
| Luke | 397 |
| Matthew | 397 |
| Acts | 387 |
| John | 293 |
Counted from what the rule matched, before the audit — a ranking, not a published total.
Counted
The rule: 了 read le. Where it ends the clause it marks a new state of affairs; anywhere else it follows the verb it completes.
30 of 6,730 matches were drawn at random and read in context; 100% were right. Checked by Claude Opus 5, reading each sampled clause in context; not a native speaker. Recall is not measured: this is what the rule finds, not everything the translation contains.
This point is HSK 1 because that is the highest HSK level of the point's own function words, as data/dict.json grades them; a word the HSK lists do not grade sends the point to 'beyond'.
Questions
- Does 了 mean past tense?
- No. Chinese does not mark tense on the verb at all. 了 marks completion or change, and a sentence with 了 can be about the future: the action is presented as done at the point the sentence is talking about.
- How often does it occur in the Chinese Bible?
- 6,730 clauses in the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified), out of 6,737 occurrences of the words that mark it.
- Which book of the Bible uses it most?
- Genesis, with 637 — followed by Luke (397), Matthew (397), Acts (387).
- How do you know the count is right?
- The rule is: 了 read le. Where it ends the clause it marks a new state of affairs; anywhere else it follows the verb it completes. 30 of its 6,730 matches were drawn at random and checked one by one; 100% were right. Recall is not measured, so the figure is what this rule finds, not everything the translation contains.
Related reference pages
Take it further
- 97 ready-made vocabulary decks — by HSK level, by book or by topic, exportable to Anki, Pleco or Quizlet.
- Printable 田字格 worksheets — passages with pinyin, meanings and tracing rows.
- The parallel reader — Chinese, pinyin and your own language side by side, every word tappable.
- The dataset behind these numbers — plain JSON, free to reuse with attribution.
How this was measured
Edition: Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified). Every figure comes from one pass over all 1,189 chapters and 31,021 verses, 650,628word tokens in total, using the site’s own segmentation. A construction count is published only when a hand-checked sample of the rule that found it was at least 90% correct; between 70% and that it is published as an approximation, and below it no count is published at all. Generated 2026-09-26.