Complement
Complements are not a form of flattery (those are compliments)[1]; 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"[2]. As is often the case, plentiful examples will help clarify!
Contents
Summary of complements
Result complement
Potential complement
Direction complement
(Compound direction complements)
Quantity complement
Degree complement
Location complement
References
- ↑ For more info on this common mistake, see this website.
- ↑ A Practical Chinese Grammar for Foreigners, p. 271
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)
