What does ‘OK啦’ mean?

The popular phrase ‘OK啦’ (OKlā) is widely used among people who live in China below age of 60. It isn’t formal Chinese, therefore is not used in formal speech or formal writing. However, there is a high possibility of hearing Chinese people on the phone using ‘OK啦’ (OKlā) instead ‘可以’(ké yǐ) or ‘行’ (xíng).

The usage of ‘OK啦’ (OKlā) is very similar to ‘行’ (xíng) or ‘可以’(ké yǐ). For example, if someone asks you to go out for dinner, ‘咱们一起去吃晚饭吧?’(zán mén yì qǐ qù chī wǎn fàn bā), the reply can be ‘行’ (xíng), which means ‘ alright’, ‘可以’(kéyǐ) in this case means ‘I can’ or ‘OK啦’ (OKlā), which means ‘OK’.

Another usage of ‘OK啦’ (OKlā) is in the phrase ‘…..就OK啦’ (…..jiù OKlā). The character ‘就’ in this phrase has a purpose of emphasising ‘OK啦’ (OKlā). For example, ‘睡一觉就OK啦’ (shuì yí jiào jiù OKlā), ‘睡觉’ (shuì jiào) means to sleep, the character ‘觉’ (jué)has two pronunciation one is (jué) and other one is (jiào), after the character ‘睡’(shuì) ‘觉’ (jué) is always pronounced (jiào). Because the character ‘一’ indicate the meaning ‘one’, therefore ‘睡一觉’(shuì yí jiào) means ‘have a sleep’. It can be literally understood as ‘have a sleep then (you will be) OK’ Another example is: ‘打一个电话就OK啦’(dǎ yí gè diàn huà jiù OKlā) the literal meaning is ‘make a phone call then (you will be) OK’.