完了
wán le · HSK 5
to be finished
✅ 完 = complete + 了 = aspect marker for done/finished
完 (wán) means complete or whole; 了 (le) marks completed aspect. Together they literally say complete-done. The darker idiomatic sense ruined or done for extends from the same finality — once it's 完了, it's over.
完 — roof 宀 + yuán 元 (phonetic)
完 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the roof 宀 suggests a house or enclosure, while 元 supplies the sound 'yuán/wán'. Originally it meant a building that was intact or whole, and the sense broadened to 'complete, finish, whole'.
了 — pictograph of swaddled child with no arms
了 originally depicted an infant wrapped in swaddling cloth, with the arms hidden or bound — a variant of 子 (child) without the arms. From 'finished wrapping' it extended to mean 'completed' or 'finished,' which is its main modern grammatical use as an aspect particle marking completed action.