Complement

Complements are not a form of flattery (those are compliments); they're a special type of structure found in modern Mandarin and have no exact counterpart in English. The Chinese word for complement is 补语 (bǔyǔ).

Complements are a bit hard to define, but you'll generally find them following verbs (or sometimes adjectives). They can be as short as one character, or practically as long as a sentence. According to A Practical Chinese Grammar for Foreigners, complements "show the duration, quantity, degree, result, direction or possibility of an action; or to illustrate the state, number, degree of a thing". As is often the case, plentiful examples will help clarify!

Potential content

• Result complement
• Potential complement
• Direction complement
  • Compound direction complements
• Quantity complement
• Degree complement
• Location complement

Sources and further reading

• Grammar book: 外国人实用汉语语法(中英文对照) (pp. 242 - 243, pp. 271 - 329)