la
particle #35,287

Meanings

  1. 1 sentence-final particle (Cantonese, = 了/啦)
  2. 2 sound of wind or rain (onomatopoeia)

Examples

HSK 1
Wǒ zǒu la!
I'm off now! (Cantonese: ngo5 zau2 laa3)
HSK 2
Fēng chuī de lā lā xiǎng.
The wind howled with a whooshing sound.
HSK 7-9
Shífàn la.
Time to eat. (Cantonese sentence)

Tips

register
In Cantonese writing (laa3) is one of the most common sentence-final particles - roughly the completive/softener +. In Mandarin the same character is also onomatopoeia for wind/rain (read lā).
mistakes
Don't confuse with or . In Mandarin texts is the usual softener; seeing at the end of a sentence strongly signals the writing is Cantonese.

Components

radical
kǒu
mouth
Left-side mouth radical - pictograph of an open mouth, the indexing component. names sounds and instruments that come from a mouth-like opening: 喇叭 trumpet / horn, 喇嘛 lama. The same radical heads most onomatopoeia: , , , .
phonetic
to slash; contrary
Right supplies the sound - là with a slight tone shift to lǎ / la. itself is bound bundle plus knife, originally 'to cut against the grain.' Here only the sound matters - functions as a syllabic transliteration character in words like 喇嘛.

Stroke Order

la