Difference between revisions of "Potential complements"

Revision as of 01:13, 21 May 2012

Structure

Potential complements can be positive or negative. What this means is fairly intuitive - potential complements can be used to express that something can happen or that it can't.

Verb + 得 / 不 + [complement]

Here [complement] is the second part of the potential complement after 得 (positive) or 不 (negative). So if the verb can be adjective, 得 is used. If the verb can not be adjective, 不 is used.

Examples

汉字他写得好。
汉字我写不好。
中文你说得很好听。

Note that the potential complement and degree complement can often appear to be the same; the difference can usually be seen from context.

Sources and and further reading

Books

Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar (pp. 71) →buy
Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Guide (pp. 191) →buy
Boya Chinese Elementary Starter 1 (博雅汉语初经起步篇) (pp. 197) →buy
Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 2 (pp. 291) →buy
Practicing HSK Grammar (语法精讲精炼) (pp. 125) →buy
Contemporary Chinese 2 (当代中文2) (pp. 63) →buy
New Practical Chinese Reader 3 (新实用汉语课本3) (pp. 99) →buy

Websites

Yale

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+== Structure ==
 [[Potential complement]]s can be positive or negative. What this means is fairly intuitive - potential complements can be used to express that something ''can'' happen or that it ''can't''.
-The structure is:
 <div class="jiegou">
@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 Here ''[complement]'' is the second part of the potential complement after 得 (positive) or 不 (negative). So if the verb can be ''adjective'', 得 is used. If the verb can not be ''adjective'', 不 is used.
-Some examples:
+== Examples ==
 <div class="liju">