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The particle 了 (1): a change or new situation
From the lesson “It snowed yesterday”
Structure
Sentence + 了。 / Negative: 没 + Verb (no 了)
语气助词“了（1）”位于句子末尾或句中停顿的地方，表示有变化或出现新情况。否定回答时，用副词“没”，句子末尾不用“了”。 了 at the end of a sentence shows that something has changed or a new situation has appeared: 下雨了 (It has started raining). 十二点了，吃午饭吧 (It's twelve now, let's have lunch). In the negative, use 没 and drop 了: 弟弟没起床呢.
Examples
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下雨了。
Xià yǔ le.
It's started raining.
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十二点了，吃午饭吧。
Shí'èr diǎn le, chī wǔfàn ba.
It's twelve o'clock. Let's have lunch.
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弟弟起床了吗？——没起床呢。
Dìdi qǐchuáng le ma? — Méi qǐchuáng ne.
Has your younger brother got up? — Not yet.