病了: Function of 了

Question

I came across the following sentence:

我病了。

I know 了 has many functions, and I believe one of them is a completive marker (past tense). But this sentence is apparently in the present, based on the context.

I checked a grammar book about 了, and it seems that at the end of the sentence, it emphasizes a new situation; something that hadn't previously been, but now is. Is that how it functions here? So is the emphasis on the fact that the speaker is sick now, but wasn't previously, i.e., is suddenly sick?

I realize that it could also be that 病了 together means "sick," but I didn't find it in the dictionary. It seems that 病 is more illness, sickness, or disease, and is used as a noun, rather than an adjective.

So a few questions. How does 了 function in this sentence? Could you say "我很病。", or does 病 somehow idiomatically always have to be accompanied by 了? If 了 has a grammatical function here, could you give more examples of it in the same context?

Answer 1

1. 「我病了。」 can be a subtle expression which implies different meaning based its context. It can mean, but may not be limited to, these:

   • Present status that I'm not so well.

   • Past status that I was ill.

   • Completive sense that I've been ill for a while.

2. 「病」 the word is a common one, which can imply from a minor ailment to a mortal blow. Again, this depends on the context.

3. 「我很病。」is not often used as far as I know, if ever.

4. I recommend that you learn 「病了」 as a whole expression and together with its context.

5. Two common patterns are:

   • adjective + 了. Such as 「天亮了」, 「日子太平了」, 「孩子长大了」, 「这下好了」 though some may argue that in some examples, it's in fact "verb + adverb + 了", e.g. 「孩子长大了」.
   • verb + 了. Such as 「把书看了」, 「把家务做了」, 「啃了馒头」, 「溜了小狗」, 「洗了衣服」, 「种了菜」, 「玩儿了游戏」.

Answer 2

verb + 了 is like 'have been being' or 'have done'.
example:
我吃了 means I have Eaten.
开始了 means it has started

adjective + 了 is like 'have been becoming adjective' or 'have become adjective'
example:
我病了means I have been becoming ill.
她红了: 'she have been becoming famous' or she have become famous' in different context.

Answer 3

"我很病"

In Chinese, "病" is a noun but here it's used as a predicate. So you CANNOT use "很" (because it's used as a adverb without the function to describe your illness). So "我很病" is a wrong statement in Chinese.

“了”

This word is used as an auxiliary word meaning something or some verb/state is finished, ends. The verb is usually a non-persistance one. Please compare the two sentences:

他走 (He's leaving)

他走了 (He's left, now he isn't here)

他病了（He becomes ill, now he's ill——"become" is a non-persistance verb）

But sometimes for a persistance verb such as 工作(work), maybe it means "going to do something":

他工作(He's working)

他工作了(He's going to work)

"了"(2)

"了” can be also read as "liao" (Chinese prounciation), this word isn't used alone but with another word:

1）他了解了（He understands）.

2）他了了(liao le)=他完蛋了