Dictionary › 除了

除了

chú le

Old HSK 3 HSK 3.0 level 3 2-character word

除了 (chú le) means "besides". It is an HSK 3.0 level 3 word, and was HSK 3 in the old six-level list.

What 除了 means

1. apart from; besides; in addition to (used to exclude, as in 除了他，除了他，{谁也没来|chú le tā , shéi yě méi lái} "apart from him, nobody came", or to include, as in 除了英語，除了英语，{他也会法语|chú le Yīng yǔ , tā yě huì Fǎ yǔ} "in addition to English, he also knows French")
2. (used to introduce one of two habitual alternatives in the pattern {除了|chú le} + A + {就是|jiù shì} + B, "either A or B")

The characters in 除了

• 除chúto get rid of; to remove; to exclude
• 了le(completed action marker); (modal particle indicating change of state, situation now)…

Example sentences

• 他们解除了婚约。
  Tāmen jiěchú le hūnyuē.
  They called off their engagement.
• 她给花园除了草。
  She weeded the garden.
• 他被学校开除了。
  The school expelled him.
• 我删除了这个应用。
  Wǒ shānchú le zhège yìngyòng.
  I've deleted the app.
• 海啸的警报解除了。
  Hǎixiào de jǐngbào jiěchú le.
  The tsunami alert was cancelled.
• 除了玛丽没有人来。
  No one came except Mary.

Where 除了 is taught

In the GraphChinese course it is part of Function Words & Prepositions (HSK 3), each one a topic in the dependency graph of HSK 1–6 that opens only once its prerequisites are solid.

Go deeper

• Every HSK 3 word, with the rest of its level.
• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read chú le correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.