Basic expressions: Greeting someone and apologizing for being late

💬 [了] after a verb often shows that something has now happened: [来了] = has come / is here now. You can reuse that pattern with other verbs too, like [到了] for "has arrived."

💬 [你来了！] is literally "you came," but in real use it often means "you're here!" Chinese often uses [了] to mark a new situation that has now become true.

🇨🇳 [对不起] is a real apology, not just a light "oops." For small everyday things, people also often use [不好意思], which can sound softer.

💬 In [来晚了], [来] does not mean physical "come" by itself; the whole pattern means "to come late." You can swap the second part: [来早了] means "came early."

💬 [晚了] often means "late" as a situation, not just "was late" in the past. You'll also hear it in phrases like [太晚了] — "it's too late."

💬 Chinese often says "come late" for "be late," so [我来晚了] is a very natural way to apologize for arriving late. The [了] marks that this has now happened.