Degree complement

Also known as: 程度补语 (chéngdù bǔyǔ) and complement of degree.

While most complements follow verbs, degree complements very often follow adjectives. They intensify or in some other way modify the degree of expression of the adjective (or verb).

When to Use Degree Complements

Until now, you may have probably been getting by just fine modifying your verbs with adverbs. You can use 非常 to say "very" and all that. Great. But once you learn to use degree complements, a whole new layer of expressiveness is infused into your language. You will be able to express degree of verbs and adjectives with much more precision and color. But how do you know when to use the degree complement? Here are the main reasons to use it:

1. To express how a verb happened or assess its quality
2. To express to what extent (or degree) an adjective is true

For the first case, the most typical examples would be describing how well an action is done, or in asking how well an action is done:

• 你们 觉得 我 的 菜 做 得 怎么样 ？
• 他 觉得 你 做 得 不 好吃 ，我 觉得 好吃 得 很 。

• 他 的 英语 说 得 怎么样 ？The complement is used to ask "how his spoken English is."
• 他 的 英语 说 得 很 棒 。The complement tells us that "his spoken English is great."

For the second case, instead of using the good old standby adverbs 很 and 非常, we can use all kinds of degree complements to spice up our adjective. In this case, the sample sentences below are going to revolve around how fat a cat is.

Common Degree Complements

Simple Degree Complements Following Verbs

The following sentences are are rather simple; they illustrate the various types of degree complements that can follow verbs, but without complicating the issue by also giving the verb an object.

• 他 说 得 很 快 。 Tā shuō de hěn kuài.He speaks quickly.
• 她 说 得 非常 好 。 Tā shuō de fēicháng hǎo.She speaks very well.
• 他 解释 得 很 清楚 。 Tā jiěshì de hěn qīngchu.He understands clearly.

Degree Complements Following Adjectives (without a 得)

There are two especially common degree complements which can follow adjectives immediately and are not preceded by a 得:

1. 极了 usually comes after adjectives with positive connotations (like 好), indicating an extremely high degree.
2. 死了 usually comes after adjectives with negative connotations (like 坏, 忙, 累, 臭, 难看), and are commonly used to exaggerate the degree of how bad something is. In recent years, however, 死了 very frequently comes after adjectives with positive connotations (see below for more details).

极了

A few examples：

• 菜 的 味道 好 极了 。 Cài de wèidào hǎo jí le.This food's flavor is extremely good.
• 这 件 衣服 漂亮 极了 。 Zhè jiàn yīfu piàoliang jí le.This piece of clothing is very beautiful.

Adj. / Verb. + 死了

• 他 的 袜子 臭 死了 。 Tā de wàzi chòu sǐ le.His socks are so smelly.
• 小狗 可爱 死了 。 Xiǎogǒu kě'ài sǐ le.Her baby is so cute!

Please note that 死 can also act as a result complement. In the examples above, however, it merely indicates an extreme degree (no actual deaths involved!).

In the last example, you might be wondering why "死了" is used with "可爱." After all, cute is a good thing! Recently, "死了" has been used with positive adjectives as well, resulting in phrases like "可爱死了,""漂亮死了," and "开心死了."

Sources and further reading

Books

• A Practical Chinese Grammar For Foreigners (外国人实用汉语语法) (pp. 284-292) →buy
• Chinese: An Essential Grammar, Second Edition (pp. 105-6) →buy
• Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 2 (3rd ed) (p. 139) →buy
• 40 Lessons for Basic Chinese Course (基础汉语40课上册） (p. 141)→buy

Websites

• Oxford University website: Complement of degree 得
• Yale University website: The Complement Of Degree