5

Could someone please explain this sentence structure?

衣服也落在了房间内.

What does the 了 mean here? Is it pronounce le or liao?

Improve this question
11
  • 2
    1. The usage is "used after the verb or adj. to indicate completion": The clothes have been forgotten in the room. 2. It is pronounced as le 3. Note that 落 here sounds là.
    – Stan
    Nov 12, 2013 at 11:36
  • Thank you. So 落在is a verb that is pronounced la zai? Why is the 在needed? Cant this be written as 落了? 谢谢
    – rabbid
    Nov 12, 2013 at 11:41
  • 1
    Here, "落了" (là le) is wrong. A conversation can be "A: 你落了什么东西没有? B: 我落钱包了!" But if you want to add the information of place where the specific thing is forgotten, "落在" is a conventional form to express that. BTW, the sentence can also be "衣服也落在房间内了".
    – Stan
    Nov 12, 2013 at 11:57
  • 2
    @Stan I'm actually really confused here. Why is 了 after 在? The verb is 落, and 在房间内 is the complement indicating location.
    – Stumpy Joe Pete
    Nov 12, 2013 at 16:46
  • @StumpyJoePete: Academically speaking, it is quite complex. First, these two structures would be easily mixed up: 1) v + complement(prep+了+obj). 2) v + complement(v+了+obj). The 了 in both of them can be put at the end of the sentence. 孤影萍踪's example "她一挥手碰 翻了 水杯" is the second case (as 水杯翻了 is a complete sentence). For this second case, this paper 结果补语小句分析和小句的内部结构 explains it as the issue of tense. For the first case, I agree with 孤影萍踪 to my language sense, but I don't know if there's any standard explanation :)
    – Stan
    Nov 13, 2013 at 2:10

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
5

衣服也落在房间内*了*。

Here 了 is used to indicate the completion of the action of 落在房间内.

衣服也落在*了*房间内。

Here 了 is moved forward and positioned after 在, and that makes 房间内 become the focus point of this setence.

Other examples: 一阵大风吹来，我的帽子飞到*了*天上。

他开车撞到*了*树上。

他把狗锁在*了*屋内。

她一挥手碰翻*了*水杯。

Improve this answer
1
  • Great answer. I agree with the point of 房间内 being the 'focus'.
    – deutschZuid
    Nov 12, 2013 at 21:25
0

The structure of this sentence is ： subject （衣服）+ verb（落）+ prepositional phrase . “ 了” has two pronunciation：

  1. le it’s a structuralparticle ， when it is used after a verb. It expresses completion of this action. It has another usage which is to express a new situation is about to happen or it has happened.

  2. liao when 了 is pronounced as “ liao”, it meas “ to finish, over”, like: 我喝不了10瓶啤酒。 （I can’t drink over 10 bottles of beer.)

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.