Descriptive complement

In this article, we take a look at how we use 得 (de) to help describe an action. It is one of the characters that often gets confused with 的 and 地, since they could be pronounced as a neutral tone "de."

Structure

Descriptive complements are used to describe the action of a verb. This would be done with an adverb in English.

Verb / Adjective + 得 + Description

Examples

• 你 说 得 很 好。Nǐ shuō de hěn hǎo.You speak very well.
• 他 做 得 很 不 好。Tā zuò de hěn bù hǎo.He did it poorly.
• 她的 诗 写 得 还不错。Tā de shī xiě de hái bùcuò.She writes good poems.
• 这篇 文章 翻译 得 马马虎虎。Zhè piān wénzhāng fānyì de mǎmǎ hǔhǔ.This essay wasn't translated that well.

See also

• Using objects with complements
• Adjectival complement "de budeliao"
• Adjectival complement "de hen"
• State complement

Sources and further reading

Books

• Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar (pp. 71-2) →buy
• Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 1 (pp. 179-80) →buy
• Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 2 (3rd ed) (pp. 172-3, 291) →buy
• Integrated Chinese: Level 2, Part 1 (pp. 302-4) →buy
• New Practical Chinese Reader 2 (新实用汉语课本2) (pp. 15-6) →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
• 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

HSK4