Discussion of 看了看 [kàn le kàn] took a look - Trainchinese

1 - Verb reduplication basically indicates that the action lasts for a short period of time or is repeated for only a small number of times. Depending on the nature of the verb and the context, it may carry on other senses. In the case where an action has already happened, “了“ is usually used between the two parts of the reduplicated verb, and it indicates the action lasts for a short while.

动词重叠现象本质上表明动作持续的时间较短或仅重复少量次数。根据动词的性质和语境，它可能承载其他意义。在动作已经发生的情况下，通常在重叠动词的两部分之间使用“了”，以表明动作持续了短暂的时间。