<ol>
<li>对于：</li>
</ol>
<blockquote>
<p>I hate chocolate. 我不喜欢巧克力。=&gt; 我不喜欢巧克力了。</p>
</blockquote>
<p>我有一个更好的例子来说明：</p>
<p>I don't smoke.  我不抽烟。  =&gt;  我不抽烟了。</p>
<p>在中国，我和一个陌生人初次见面，他可能会给我递烟，如果我说：<code>我不抽烟。</code>，他会明白我表达的是<code>以前我从来不抽烟</code>或者<code>我没有抽烟这个习惯</code>或者<code>我拒绝抽烟。</code>。</p>
<p>但如果2个关系比较好的人，他们都抽烟，在几年时间没见的情况下，他们又重逢了，某A人给某B人递烟，A对B说：<code>我不抽烟了。</code>，B明白A表达的是A<code>戒烟了</code>，即：以前抽烟，现在不抽烟了。</p>
<ol start="2">
<li>对于：</li>
</ol>
<blockquote>
<p>She believes in UFOs. 她相信不明飞行物。=&gt; 她相信了不明飞行物。</p>
</blockquote>
<p><code>她相信不明飞行物。</code>表达的是<code>她本来就相信不明飞行物。</code>.</p>
<p>但<code>她相信了不明飞行物。</code>，表达的是她之前(或以前)<strong>不</strong>相信不明飞行物。可能在别人的说服下，她从以前的<code>她不相信不明飞行物</code><strong>转变为</strong><code>她相信了不明飞行物。</code></p>
<ol start="3">
<li>对于:</li>
</ol>
<blockquote>
<p>The box contains 24 cans of soda. 这个盒子里装着24罐汽水。=&gt; 这个盒子里装了24罐汽水。</p>
</blockquote>
<p><code>装着</code>或<code>装了</code>意思没有太大的差别，都表示盒子里<strong>have</strong>(有)24罐汽水。</p>
<ol start="4">
<li>对于:</li>
</ol>
<blockquote>
<p>Yong owns three motorbikes. 勇有三辆摩托车。=&gt; 勇有了三辆摩托车。</p>
</blockquote>
<p><code>勇有三辆摩托车。</code>表示勇(以前)就有三辆摩托车。拥有的时间相对(勇有了三辆摩托车)来说比较长。</p>
<p><code>勇有了三辆摩托车。</code>表示勇<strong>刚刚</strong>有三辆摩托车，强调的是勇有三辆摩托车的时间没多长，之前勇没有三辆摩托车，之前可能有一辆或两辆摩托车。</p>
<h2>Update</h2>
<p>Addition: 关于<code>了</code>的用法总结，可以看我的这个答案：</p>
<p><a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/59367/36261">https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/59367/36261</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-04T23:40:45.103Z
2024-11-19T03:20:19.360Z
2024-11-19T03:20:19.360Z
Tom
<p>According to the paradigm I find most useful, the particle 了 always asserts the existence of an endpoint.  When paired with a stative expression, this endpoint must refer to the end of a prior situation, since states by definition cannot contain their own endpoints.  This is said to give an inchoative flavor to the state.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I hate chocolate. 我不喜欢巧克力。=&gt; 我不喜欢巧克力了。</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The first sentences assigns a characteristic to the speaker of not liking chocolate.  By adding 了, the speaker is adding an assertion that this state now obtains and telling the listener to update their understanding of the conversational domain accordingly.</p>
<p>If the reason for the need to update is because of a temporal change, you could translate the second sentence as &quot;I  don't like chocolate now/any more.&quot;  If the need to update comes from the listener's mistaken view of the situation, you might translate it as &quot;I don't like chocolate, you see/know.&quot;</p>
<blockquote>
<p>She believes in UFOs. 她相信不明飞行物。=&gt; 她相信了不明飞行物。</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The verb 相信 is typically stative or contemplates one stage of affairs.  The first sentences assigns the characteristic of believing in UFOs to 她.  Stative verbs are normally incompatible with 了; however, with some verbs, like 相信, the use of 了 will <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coercion_(linguistics)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">coerce</a> an achievement reading.  With an achievement reading, 相信 no longer refers to a single state of belief, but to a stage of unbelief followed by a stage of belief.  The use of 了 asserts that there was an end of the state of unbelief followed by an aftermath of belief.</p>
<p>You could translate the second sentence the same as the first (with appropriate tense adjustments) given the right context, or you could say something like &quot;she came/started to believe in UFOs&quot; to bring out the difference.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The box contains 24 cans of soda. 这个盒子里装着24罐汽水。=&gt; 这个盒子里装了24罐汽水。</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I think that these two sentence types are almost always interchangeable; however, I think the first asserts a single state, but the latter asserts a resultant state.  To bring out this difference, you could translate the first sentence as &quot;This box is packed with 24 cans of soda&quot; and the second with &quot;This box has been packed with 24 cans of soda.&quot;  The first brings out a better descriptive, scene-setting flavor; and the latter brings out a more narrative sense of how you happen to find things situated.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Yong owns three motorbikes. 勇有三辆摩托车。=&gt; 勇有了三辆摩托车。</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The verb 有 normally is stative, but like 相信 and 知道, it can be used with 了 to give an inchoative flavor.  It is coerced into an achievement reading expressing the change from not having to having.</p>
<p>The second sentence means something like &quot;Yong came to have/got three motorbikes.&quot;  It asserts the moment that not having changed to having and the immediate aftermath of the change.</p>
<p>Not all stative verbs can be used with 了 to express achievements. For instance, I don't think you would normally say 我喜欢了她.  However, sometimes you can add a suffix to express the inchoative meaning, like the difference between 喜欢 and 喜欢上.  Compare:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>我特别喜欢她  （I especially liked her)</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>我立刻就喜欢上了她 (I immediately warmed up to her)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The former sentence expresses only one state or stage of affairs, but the latter expresses two and the change between them.</p>
<p>You can, of course, say 我喜欢她了, but this would typically mean &quot;I like(d) her now&quot; rather than &quot;I started to like her.&quot;</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-12-06T19:10:45.230Z
2024-12-06T19:10:45.230Z
Vegawatcher
<p>First off, you have to know the difference between perfective 了 and change-of-state 了, which have different meanings.</p>
<p>Perfective 了 is between verb and object, change-of-state 了 is at the end of the sentence. In your examples, the first sentence (我不喜欢巧克力了) has change-of-state 了, and the others have perfective 了.</p>
<p>What <strong>change-of-state 了</strong> does to stative verbs is easy to describe. Change-of-state 了 quite literally means that there has been a change (to before). Its meaning is very much like adding a &quot;now&quot; to the English sentence.</p>
<p>我不喜欢巧克力了。 I dislike chocolate now.</p>
<p>The same goes for your other sentences.</p>
<p>这个盒子里装24罐汽水<strong>了</strong>。 This box now contains 24 cans of soda.</p>
<p>Perfective 了, on the other hand, is used less often than change-of-state 了.
To cite <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfective_aspect" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia</a>, the perfective aspect &quot;describes an action viewed as a simple whole, i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the imperfective aspect, which presents an event as having internal structure (such as ongoing, continuous, or habitual actions).&quot;</p>
<p>So it inhibits the natural stative interpretation of the verbs. For resultative verbs like 装, there is no difference between saying</p>
<p>这个盒子里装着24罐汽水。 The box contains 24 cans of soda.</p>
<p>这个盒子里装<strong>了</strong>24罐汽水。24 cans of soda were put in the box.</p>
<p>But for true stative verbs like 喜欢, 相信, 有, I would say it is a bit like saying that you don't care for how long it lasted.</p>
<p>In 勇有了三辆摩托车。 you don't know how long Yǒng had three motorbikes, you just care that he had three motorbikes in that moment.</p>
<p><strong>Edit: Adjectives and durations</strong></p>
<p>Adjectives work the same way, except that because they usually have no object, they only take change-of-state 了:</p>
<p>燈綠嘍[灯绿喽] The (traffic) light's turned green!</p>
<p>But a very common way to use perfective 了 with stative verbs is by adding a duration as object. It then marks that the duration already passed.</p>
<p>灯绿了一阵子 The light was green for a while.</p>
<p>Note that the light is implied to not be green anymore, in constrast to change-of-state 了:</p>
<p>灯绿一阵子了 The light has been green for a while now. (It's still green)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-19T15:57:31.753Z
It can be argued that Chinese adjectives (形容词) are in fact stative verbs - see for instance https://iphone.pleco.com/manual/229/abc.html#pos item #28. Would you care to extend your answer to treat these cases?
goPlayerJuggler
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-19T13:12:23.527Z
2024-11-20T17:11:53.707Z
2024-11-20T17:11:53.707Z
Dodezv
<p>This <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/59236/%E4%BA%86-with-a-verb-that-appears-to-be-stative">question</a> motivated me to study the concepts of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stative_verb" rel="nofollow noreferrer">stative</a> as well as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_verb" rel="nofollow noreferrer">dynamic</a> verbs. I also found some English <a href="https://continuingstudies.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/stat" rel="nofollow noreferrer">examples</a>. I translated those sentences into Chinese. I wonder what &quot;了&quot; would change the meaning of the sentences if we add it to the verbs or at the end of the sentences.</p>
<p>I hate chocolate. 我不喜欢巧克力。=&gt; 我不喜欢巧克力<strong>了</strong>。</p>
<p>She believes in UFOs. 她相信不明飞行物。=&gt; 她相信<strong>了</strong>不明飞行物。</p>
<p>The box contains 24 cans of soda. 这个盒子里装着24罐汽水。=&gt; 这个盒子里装<strong>了</strong>24罐汽水。</p>
<p>Yong owns three motorbikes. 勇有三辆摩托车。=&gt; 勇有<strong>了</strong>三辆摩托车。</p>
<p>How the word <strong>了</strong> changed the meanings of the sentences?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-05T02:05:08.623Z
According to @Tom's answer,  if the stative verb describes a status, adding 了 could indicate the change of the status from past to now. Is it correct?
PdotWang
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-19T03:16:26.197Z
你总结的可能不太对，我认为我的这个答案可能总结的更好，请看链接 https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/59367/36261
Tom
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-19T16:06:38.320Z
It is argued by some that Chinese adjectives are actually stative verbs, see https://iphone.pleco.com/manual/229/abc.html#pos item #28. This may be of interest to you.
goPlayerJuggler
<meaning><verbs>
What are stative verbs in Chinese language? Can we use "了" with them?
# What are stative verbs in Chinese language? Can we use "了" with them?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-11-04)

This [question](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/59236/%E4%BA%86-with-a-verb-that-appears-to-be-stative) motivated me to study the concepts of [stative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stative_verb) as well as [dynamic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_verb) verbs. I also found some English [examples](https://continuingstudies.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/stat). I translated those sentences into Chinese. I wonder what "了" would change the meaning of the sentences if we add it to the verbs or at the end of the sentences.

I hate chocolate. 我不喜欢巧克力。=> 我不喜欢巧克力**了**。

She believes in UFOs. 她相信不明飞行物。=> 她相信**了**不明飞行物。

The box contains 24 cans of soda. 这个盒子里装着24罐汽水。=> 这个盒子里装**了**24罐汽水。

Yong owns three motorbikes. 勇有三辆摩托车。=> 勇有**了**三辆摩托车。

How the word **了** changed the meanings of the sentences?

**Tags:** meaning, verbs

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: According to @username_1's answer,  if the stative verb describes a status, adding 了 could indicate the change of the status from past to now. Is it correct?  
> **username_1**: 你总结的可能不太对，我认为我的这个答案可能总结的更好，请看链接 https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/59367/36261  
> **username_2**: It is argued by some that Chinese adjectives are actually stative verbs, see https://iphone.pleco.com/manual/229/abc.html#pos item #28. This may be of interest to you.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2024-11-04. Score: 2

1. 对于：

> I hate chocolate. 我不喜欢巧克力。=> 我不喜欢巧克力了。

我有一个更好的例子来说明：

I don't smoke. 我不抽烟。 => 我不抽烟了。

在中国，我和一个陌生人初次见面，他可能会给我递烟，如果我说：`我不抽烟。`，他会明白我表达的是`以前我从来不抽烟`或者`我没有抽烟这个习惯`或者`我拒绝抽烟。`。

但如果2个关系比较好的人，他们都抽烟，在几年时间没见的情况下，他们又重逢了，某A人给某B人递烟，A对B说：`我不抽烟了。`，B明白A表达的是A`戒烟了`，即：以前抽烟，现在不抽烟了。

2. 对于：

> She believes in UFOs. 她相信不明飞行物。=> 她相信了不明飞行物。

`她相信不明飞行物。`表达的是`她本来就相信不明飞行物。`.

但`她相信了不明飞行物。`，表达的是她之前(或以前)**不**相信不明飞行物。可能在别人的说服下，她从以前的`她不相信不明飞行物`**转变为**`她相信了不明飞行物。`

3. 对于:

> The box contains 24 cans of soda. 这个盒子里装着24罐汽水。=> 这个盒子里装了24罐汽水。

`装着`或`装了`意思没有太大的差别，都表示盒子里**have**(有)24罐汽水。

4. 对于:

> Yong owns three motorbikes. 勇有三辆摩托车。=> 勇有了三辆摩托车。

`勇有三辆摩托车。`表示勇(以前)就有三辆摩托车。拥有的时间相对(勇有了三辆摩托车)来说比较长。

`勇有了三辆摩托车。`表示勇**刚刚**有三辆摩托车，强调的是勇有三辆摩托车的时间没多长，之前勇没有三辆摩托车，之前可能有一辆或两辆摩托车。

## Update

Addition: 关于`了`的用法总结，可以看我的这个答案：

<https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/59367/36261>


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2024-12-06. Score: 1

According to the paradigm I find most useful, the particle 了 always asserts the existence of an endpoint. When paired with a stative expression, this endpoint must refer to the end of a prior situation, since states by definition cannot contain their own endpoints. This is said to give an inchoative flavor to the state.

> I hate chocolate. 我不喜欢巧克力。=> 我不喜欢巧克力了。

The first sentences assigns a characteristic to the speaker of not liking chocolate. By adding 了, the speaker is adding an assertion that this state now obtains and telling the listener to update their understanding of the conversational domain accordingly.

If the reason for the need to update is because of a temporal change, you could translate the second sentence as "I don't like chocolate now/any more." If the need to update comes from the listener's mistaken view of the situation, you might translate it as "I don't like chocolate, you see/know."

> She believes in UFOs. 她相信不明飞行物。=> 她相信了不明飞行物。

The verb 相信 is typically stative or contemplates one stage of affairs. The first sentences assigns the characteristic of believing in UFOs to 她. Stative verbs are normally incompatible with 了; however, with some verbs, like 相信, the use of 了 will [coerce](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coercion_(linguistics)) an achievement reading. With an achievement reading, 相信 no longer refers to a single state of belief, but to a stage of unbelief followed by a stage of belief. The use of 了 asserts that there was an end of the state of unbelief followed by an aftermath of belief.

You could translate the second sentence the same as the first (with appropriate tense adjustments) given the right context, or you could say something like "she came/started to believe in UFOs" to bring out the difference.

> The box contains 24 cans of soda. 这个盒子里装着24罐汽水。=> 这个盒子里装了24罐汽水。

I think that these two sentence types are almost always interchangeable; however, I think the first asserts a single state, but the latter asserts a resultant state. To bring out this difference, you could translate the first sentence as "This box is packed with 24 cans of soda" and the second with "This box has been packed with 24 cans of soda." The first brings out a better descriptive, scene-setting flavor; and the latter brings out a more narrative sense of how you happen to find things situated.

> Yong owns three motorbikes. 勇有三辆摩托车。=> 勇有了三辆摩托车。

The verb 有 normally is stative, but like 相信 and 知道, it can be used with 了 to give an inchoative flavor. It is coerced into an achievement reading expressing the change from not having to having.

The second sentence means something like "Yong came to have/got three motorbikes." It asserts the moment that not having changed to having and the immediate aftermath of the change.

Not all stative verbs can be used with 了 to express achievements. For instance, I don't think you would normally say 我喜欢了她. However, sometimes you can add a suffix to express the inchoative meaning, like the difference between 喜欢 and 喜欢上. Compare:

> 我特别喜欢她 （I especially liked her)

> 我立刻就喜欢上了她 (I immediately warmed up to her)

The former sentence expresses only one state or stage of affairs, but the latter expresses two and the change between them.

You can, of course, say 我喜欢她了, but this would typically mean "I like(d) her now" rather than "I started to like her."


---

### Answer by username_4 on 2024-11-19. Score: 1

First off, you have to know the difference between perfective 了 and change-of-state 了, which have different meanings.

Perfective 了 is between verb and object, change-of-state 了 is at the end of the sentence. In your examples, the first sentence (我不喜欢巧克力了) has change-of-state 了, and the others have perfective 了.

What **change-of-state 了** does to stative verbs is easy to describe. Change-of-state 了 quite literally means that there has been a change (to before). Its meaning is very much like adding a "now" to the English sentence.

我不喜欢巧克力了。 I dislike chocolate now.

The same goes for your other sentences.

这个盒子里装24罐汽水**了**。 This box now contains 24 cans of soda.

Perfective 了, on the other hand, is used less often than change-of-state 了.
To cite [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfective_aspect), the perfective aspect "describes an action viewed as a simple whole, i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the imperfective aspect, which presents an event as having internal structure (such as ongoing, continuous, or habitual actions)."

So it inhibits the natural stative interpretation of the verbs. For resultative verbs like 装, there is no difference between saying

这个盒子里装着24罐汽水。 The box contains 24 cans of soda.

这个盒子里装**了**24罐汽水。24 cans of soda were put in the box.

But for true stative verbs like 喜欢, 相信, 有, I would say it is a bit like saying that you don't care for how long it lasted.

In 勇有了三辆摩托车。 you don't know how long Yǒng had three motorbikes, you just care that he had three motorbikes in that moment.

**Edit: Adjectives and durations**

Adjectives work the same way, except that because they usually have no object, they only take change-of-state 了:

燈綠嘍[灯绿喽] The (traffic) light's turned green!

But a very common way to use perfective 了 with stative verbs is by adding a duration as object. It then marks that the duration already passed.

灯绿了一阵子 The light was green for a while.

Note that the light is implied to not be green anymore, in constrast to change-of-state 了:

灯绿一阵子了 The light has been green for a while now. (It's still green)

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: It can be argued that Chinese adjectives (形容词) are in fact stative verbs - see for instance https://iphone.pleco.com/manual/229/abc.html#pos item #28. Would you care to extend your answer to treat these cases?  

---

