# 了 - 太贵了



## macrotis

Hi all,

I often see 贵 is used with 了 but its meaning hasn't been clear in my mind yet. For example:

- 这是一幅非常漂亮的画。多少钱?
- 三百美元。
- 太贵了。你可以卖便宜一点吗?

What does it add to the meaning of 贵, please?



---
In Turkish, we too often add some words to "expensive", seemingly redundant, but they have their functions. For example, in the conversation above, the client may say "[biraz] pahalı geldi/oldu" it _came_/_became_ expensive [a bit]. Here _came_ or _became_ soften the emotional effect of bare "expensive" and imply that "I really want to buy it but ..." and an expectation of a little discount.


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## xiaolijie

The 了 is not really paired with 贵, but with 太. So you've got this very common pattern: "太 ... 了"

For example: 
你太好了 = You're too good/ so kind
我太累了 = I'm too tired
今天太冷了= It's too cold today
太贵了= (That's) too  expensive


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## Queen Z

I think add 了 to贵，渴，饿makes them adjective as 贵了，渴了，饿了，
In the case 了 add to an adjective or a verb, it means this action/situation is already done or finished.


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## xiaolijie

Queen Z said:


> I think add 了 to贵，渴，饿makes them adjective as 贵了，渴了，饿了，


 贵，渴，饿 are all adjectives, whether you add 了 or not. Don't you think so?


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## Queen Z

no, they could be adjective and also adv. 
Anyway, when the 了 add to the adjective, it means sth already happen or exist, right?


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## xiaolijie

Queen Z said:


> no, they could be adjective and also adv.
> Anyway, when the 了 add to the adjective, it means sth already happen or exist, right?


No and no.
As explained in post #2, when an adjective follows 太, the tendency is to add 了. So the 了 here is triggered by 太.


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## FRee^ARouND

xiaolijie said:


> No and no.
> As explained in post #2, when an adjective follows 太, the tendency is to add 了. So the 了 here is triggered by 太.


Chinese often add "了" in colloquail while seldom use it in formal essays and so on.
了 here doesn't matter at all to some extent. Just a mood word.

<Unrelated question removed>


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## lustdevil

了is like "has" in English, which usually indicate an action is finished or something has already come into existence . 贵is an adjective here, but we still use "了" to suggest that the price has seemingly been raised by the seller. you can also "很贵啊", but it does not embody the meaning of complaint. For the example you gave, both "很贵啊" and " 太贵了" work, but sometime, things will be really complicated. For instance, if you have been fed up with someone's bullshit, you probably would say "好了" ,which means you should HAVE stopped your talking or it has been enough for me; 了acts as an decisive order or demand to cut short that guy's nonsense, but you can't say "很好" , which has an absolutely opposite meaning.


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## SuperXW

I agree with xiaolijie. 太...了 is just a common expression meaning "too..." It's not necessary to consider other usages of "了", otherwise it would get too complicated.


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## BODYholic

FRee^ARouND said:


> Chinese often add "了" in colloquail while seldom use it in formal essays and so on.
> 了 here doesn't matter at all to some extent. Just a mood word.



Ditto.

macrotis, you may refer to the 4th explanation from this link. Rest assure that, in your cited scenario, the "了" has very little to do with a change in state or a completed action.


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## xiaolijie

BODYholic said:


> Ditto.
> 
> macrotis, you may refer to the 4th explanation from this link.


There're 2 dictionaries there, so I would add that it's the 4th item _in the 2nd dictionary_.


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## Queen Z

NO. 太贵is also ok! 
why don't you buy this book? 为什么不买这本书？
Because it is too expensive. 太贵
As Free Around said, sometime it is just a mood word, subtle emotion here. 太贵 kind of "sb pooh-pooh its price" 
太贵了 kindof  “express regret”


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## SuperXW

The reason I would like to say "太...了。" is a common pattern in colloquial Chinese is because we almost never replied "很贵了。" nor "太贵啊。", "太贵的。" *when bargaining*, only "太贵了(啦)。" sounds idiomatic. 
(的 is ALSO often attached to an adjective or something "has been done", and 啊 is often used to express the mood, but they just don't fit here.)

It's not necessary to be related to the present perfect tense. 贵 is only an adjective. Consider: "到那时候就太贵了。" - future tense.
It's not necessary to mean "somebody has raised the price." Consider: "对我来说太贵了。" - FOR ME, it's too expensive.

Of course 太贵 without 了 is still grammatical. But in a conversation, if the sentence is *too short*, we naturally want to put 了/啊/的/other particles at the end. In case of "太...", the particle is always "了(啦)".


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## xiaolijie

Queen Z said:


> NO. 太贵is also ok!
> why don't you buy this book? 为什么不买这本书？
> Because it is too expensive. 太贵
> As Free Around said, sometime it is just a mood word, subtle emotion here. 太贵 kind of "sb pooh-pooh its price"
> 太贵了 kindof “express regret”


@ Queenz: both you and Free Around may be correct but the question we've got in this thread is not whether 了 can or cannot come after 太, but *why 了 is there in the OP's example*. 
As you may know, there are many things we can talk about 了, _but you must ask yourself_ what about 了 that the OP wants to or need to know and try to address just that.


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## Queen Z

xiaolijie said:


> @ Queenz: both you and Free Around may be correct but the question we've got in this thread is not whether 了 can or cannot come after 太, but *why 了 is there, after 太*.
> As you may know, there are many things we can talk about 了, but we must ask what about 了 that the OP wants to know.


You are right, we should come back to "What does it add to the meaning of 贵" 
In my opinion, 了 adds nothing to the meaning of 贵. But  了 make this sentence more colloquial. 
Hope this would help.


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## Ralou

sometimes adding 了 to 贵 is enough to express "too expensive". The difference between 贵 贵了 太贵了 is similar to the difference between expensive, too expensive, and very expensive 
but in other context, 贵了 means it's more expensive than before


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## Ralou

After consideration, I think 了 generally means a state over some degree. The degree can be time, process, price, and many other things...

Moditor's note:

Please use the "Edit Post" button if you want to add something else to your post. Do not make additional posts unnecessarily.


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## macrotis

Thank you all.


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