---
title: "verb + 了 + verb in Chinese Grammar: … briefly, With Examples"
description: "verb + 了 + verb: … briefly; … a little. V了V: did the action briefly or casually. 4 real lines from stories, each word explained."
canonical: "https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/v-le-v"
author: "Mandarin The Wild"
---

[Chinese grammar](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar)

# verb + 了 + verb

… briefly; … a little

V了V: did the action briefly or casually.

## In stories

妈妈**看了看**我，说：“对，她都看见了。”

[女儿画妈妈 · Body parts in Chinese](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/body-parts-in-chinese#library-word-344-347) HSK 1

我**看了看**杯子，小猫也看着我。

[小猫杯子 · The birthday present that came back](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/easy-chinese-story-birthday-present#library-word-228-231) HSK 1

她**想了想**，去找爸爸：“爸爸，我还想要十五个一毛！”

[十个一毛 · How to count money in Chinese (块 and 毛)](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/how-to-count-money-in-chinese-kuai-and-mao#library-word-292-295) HSK 1

她**看了看**苹果，看了看面包，再看，爸爸不在那里了！

[我爸爸很高 · How to describe people in Chinese](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/how-to-describe-people-in-chinese#library-word-41-44) HSK 1

[Read 女儿画妈妈](https://mandarinthewild.com/library/read/body-parts-in-chinese#library-word-344-347)

## More patterns

- [verb (+ 了) + duration (for how long) for … (how long … lasts)](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/duration)
- [太 + adjective + 了 so …!](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/tai-le)
- [verb + 不了/得了 cannot …; can …](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/v-bu-liao)
- [快(要)…了 about to …](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/kuai-le)
- [为了…(而)… in order to …, …](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/weile-er)
- [别 + verb + 了 (stop …) stop …; don’t … any more](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-grammar/bie-le)

## What does verb + 了 + verb mean in Chinese?

… briefly; … a little. V了V: did the action briefly or casually.

## How common is verb + 了 + verb?

It comes up in 113 readings of the 392 stories and articles in our free Library.

## Does it correct my mistakes?

No. It shows which patterns a text uses and what each one does; it doesn’t mark errors. Paste a sentence you wrote to see whether it uses the pattern you meant.

## More free tools

- [Chinese dictionary](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-dictionary)
- [Measure words](https://mandarinthewild.com/measure-words)
- [How hard is this text?](https://mandarinthewild.com/text-level)
- [Free Chinese stories](https://mandarinthewild.com/library)

Patterns found by our own parser; lines from our free Library.