Level 4 · Lesson 4

天气冷了
It's turned cold

天气冷了。下雨了。我不去了。

了 at the end of a sentence announces a change: things are not what they were.

听 · Listen

下雨了
 安娜 —  李明，今天很冷！ 
Li Ming, it's very cold today!  
 李明 —  天气冷了。昨天不冷，今天很冷。 
The weather's turned cold. Yesterday it wasn't cold; today it is.  
 安娜 —  下雨了吗？ 
Has it started raining?  
 李明 —  下雨了，也刮风了。 
It's raining now, and the wind has got up too.  
 安娜 —  那我不去公园了。 
Then I won't go to the park after all.  
 李明 —  我也不去了。我在家喝茶。 
I'm not going either. I'll stay home and drink tea.  
 安娜 —  明天热了，我们就去公园。 
Once it warms up tomorrow, we'll go to the park.  
 李明 —  好，明天！ 
Good — tomorrow!  

讲解 · Explanation

天气冷了。下雨了。刮风了。

This 了 sits at the end of the sentence, not after the verb, and it does a different job: it announces a change. 天气冷了 does not mean the weather was cold; it means it has turned cold — it was not cold before, it is now. 下雨了 is what people call out when the first drops fall: the rain has started. The news is the change itself.

我是学生了。我不去了。

A change can be about you, too. 我是学生了 — I am a student now, which I was not before. 我不去了 — I am not going after all; the plan has changed. Notice that 不 and this 了 live together perfectly happily: 不 negates the verb, and 了 says the situation is new. That is quite different from 没, which pushes 了 out.

我吃了一碗饭。/ 我不吃饭了。

Two 了s, two positions, two meanings. Right after the verb (吃了一碗饭) it says the event got completed. At the end of the sentence (不吃饭了) it says the situation has changed. And this second 了 is no more a past tense than the first: 明天热了我们就去公园 is entirely about tomorrow.

生词 · Vocabulary

词	Meaning	注 · Note
天气	weather	今天天气很好
冷	cold	很冷 hěn lěng; 冷了 = it has turned cold
热	hot	很热 hěn rè; 热了 = it has warmed up
下雨	to rain	下雨了 = it has started raining
刮风	to be windy	刮风了 = the wind has got up

练习 · Practice

天气冷了。 What does this sentence tell you?

______！我们不去公园了。 It has started raining!

我不去学校 ______ 。 Fill in the particle: 'I'm not going to school after all.'

排一排。 Arrange the words: 'Once it warms up tomorrow, we'll go to the park.'

天气、冷、热、下雨、刮风 Match each word to its meaning.

用一用 · Use it

下雨了！天气冷了。我不去公园了，我在家喝茶。

Look out of the window and report the weather in one breath: 下雨了 or 刮风了 or 天气冷了 or 天气热了. Then change a plan out loud with 不…了: 我不去…了. Finally, say the pair 我吃了饭 and 我不吃饭了 one after the other, and feel where the 了 has moved — after the verb it finishes an event, at the end it changes the world.