How to use 快要……了
快 + Verb / Adj. + 了
快 and 快要 can present an event as approaching. Put them before the event phrase and add final 了 to mark the coming change as relevant. 要 with final 了 also serves this function in suitable contexts. The sentence looks forward even though learners may first encounter 了 in descriptions of realized events.
With some adjectives, 快 can indicate that a state or threshold is nearly reached. The idea is proximity to a change, not necessarily physical speed. The relevant timescale depends on the event: an imminent action and an approaching holiday need not be equally close in minutes. When specifying a concrete future interval, check the construction carefully; 就要 is especially useful with an explicit countdown.
Examples with pinyin and English
我们快到了。
We're almost there.
快下雨了。
It's going to rain soon.
快要过年了，你什么时候回家？
It's almost Chinese New Year. When are you going back to your hometown?
我女朋友快要过生日了。
My girlfriend is about to have her birthday.
What to remember
- Use final 了 for the approaching change.
- 快 can refer to proximity rather than speed.
- Timescale depends on the event discussed.
Practise the pattern
Practise this topic with the app’s grammar exercises. Your answers and review dates are saved separately from vocabulary practice.
Practise this grammar topic ↗Look up the grammar words
Source and editorial notes
Explanation rewritten for Laowai. Examples are adapted from the Laowai English grammar curriculum, with editorial corrections where needed. The original curriculum credits AllSet Learning’s Chinese Grammar Wiki as used with permission. Read the retained source credits.
Difficulty labels describe the level of the explanation; they are not official HSK placement. Send a correction with this page’s URL.