Advanced "le" with complements

You may have learned that 了 (le) follows immediately after a verb to indicate completion (AKA 了1), and comes at the end of a sentence when it indicates a "change of state" (AKA 了2). But what about when a complement comes after the verb? Does that count as part of the verb or not? The answer, as it often is with 了, is "it's complicated."

Two Possible Structures

Both of these structures are possible, but the second one has fewer acceptable use cases.

Subj. + Verb + Complement + 了

Subj. + Verb + 了 + Complement

The former is more common in informal speech, while the latter is more common in written language and is only used with certain types of complements.

了 After the Complement

This is fine for most verb-complement structures. No real limits here.

Some examples：

• 买 到 了 。Mǎi dào le.Purchased/bought.
• 做 起来 了 。Zuò qǐlái le.Produced/made.
• 吃 完 了 。Chī wán le .Finished eating.
• 穿 好 了 。Chuān hǎo le .Dressed.
• 用 没 了 。Yòng méi le .Useless.
• 周杰伦 演唱会 的 门票 卖 光 了 。Zhōu Jiélún yǎnchànghuì de ménpiào mài guāng le .Jay Chou's concert tickets are sold out.
• 包里 装 满 了 书 。Bāo lǐ zhuāng mǎn le shū.The book has been wrapped.
• 我 今天 睡 了 十 个 小时，睡 够 了 。Wǒ jīntiān shuì le shí gè xiǎoshí, shuì gòu le .Today I slept for ten hours. It was definitely enough sleep.
• 我 第一次 听到 这 首 歌，就 爱 上 了这 首 歌 。Wǒ dì-yī cì tīngdào zhè shǒu gē, jiù ài shàng le zhè shǒu gē.The first time I heard this song, it hurt me.
• 我们 打 赢 了 比赛 。Wǒmen dǎ yíng le bǐsài.We won the competition.

了 After a Verb with a Complement

While you do NOT do this with result complements (e.g. 完, 好, etc.), it is a very common structure with direction complements in written Chinese.

Some examples：

• 站 了 起来Zhàn le qǐlái .stood up
• 走 了 上去Zǒu le shàngqù .walked upward to
• 吃 了 起来Chī le qǐlái .started eating
• 跑 了 过来Pǎo le guòlái .ran over here
• 聊 了 下去Liáo le xiàqù .chatted on
• 我 看到 一 个 人 游 了 过去 。Wǒ kāndào yī gè rén yóu le guòqù.I saw someone swim over there.
• 你 快 点 跑，不然 小明 就 追 了 上来 。Nǐ kuài diǎn pǎo, bùrán Xiǎo Míng jiù zhuī le shànglái.Run faster, or else Xiao Ming will catch up to you.
• 我 把 桃子 摘 了 下来 。Wǒ bǎ táozi zhāi le xiàlái.I picked the peach (and pulled it down).
• 小妹 看到 妈妈 不 在 家，哭 了 起来 。Xiǎomèi kāndào māma bù zài jiā, kū le qǐlái .Xiao Mei started crying when she saw her mother wasn't home.
• 我 把 整 杯 水 都 喝 了 下去 。Wǒ bǎ zhěng bēi shuǐ dōu hē le xiàqù.I drank down a whole cup of water.

Sources and further reading

Books

HSK5