Complement
Complements are a a special type of structure found in modern Mandarin which follow verbs (or sometimes adjectives) and provide additional information. 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"[1]. The Chinese word for complement is 补语 (bǔyǔ).
Complements are not a form of flattery (those are compliments)[2]; they're much more versatile than that! But because complements have no exact counterpart in English, they can be a little bit difficult to get the hang of at first. As is often the case, plentiful examples will help clarify!
Contents
Summary of complement types
Below you'll find all the major complement types (as well as some of the minor ones), with representative examples of each. The first four (result complement, potential complement, direction complement, and degree complement) are the critical ones. Click on the complement names for more detailed explanations and plenty of additional examples.
| Type of Complement | Verb | Complement | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Result complement | 做 | 完 | to finish doing |
| 看 | 见 | to see | |
| 买 | 到 | to buy (successfully) | |
| 计划 | 好 | to plan (properly) | |
| 说 | 清楚 | to speak clearly | |
| Potential complement | 去 | 不了 | cannot go |
| 去 | 得了 | can go | |
| 听 | 不到 | cannot hear | |
| 看 | 得见 | can see | |
| 听 | 不懂 | to (listen but) not understand | |
| 看 | 得懂 | to be able to read and understand | |
| 吃 | 得完 | can finish eating | |
| Direction complement | 放 | 下 | to put down |
| 走 | 上去 | to walk up | |
| 飞 | 回来 | to fly back (here) | |
| 看 | 过来 | to look (over) this way | |
| Degree complement | 说 | 得很好 | to speak (very) well |
| 好* | 极了 | great | |
| 累* | 死了 | great | |
| 脏* | 得不得了 | terribly dirty | |
| State complement | 想 | 得很简单 | to think very simply |
| 搞 | 得很乱 | to make a mess (of things) | |
| Quantity complement | 去 | 一次 | to go once |
| 工作 | 十个小时 | to work for 10 hours | |
| Location complement | 住 | 在北京 | to live in Beijing |
| 来 | 到中国 | to come to China | |
| Time complement | 等 | 到明年 | to wait until next year |
| 生 | 于69年 | to be born in '69 |
* OK, these are adjectives, not verbs!
Composition of complements
You might be wondering: what is the complement, exactly? For example, is it another verb, or an adjective or what? The answer is that it varies. It can be a verb, an adjective, a prepositional phrase, a measure word phrase, or a long, complex phrase. The following chart breaks it down.
| Word Preceding Complement | Complement Content | Complement Types | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verb | Verb | Result complement | 做完 |
| Potential complement | 看得懂 | ||
| Direction complement | 走回来 | ||
| Adjective | Result complement | 做好 | |
| State complement | 想得很简单 | ||
| Prepositional phrase | Location complement | 住在北京 | |
| Time complement | 生于69年 | ||
| Adjective | Adjective | Degree complement | 做完 |
| Result complement | 做好 | ||
| Adverb | Degree complement | 好极了 | |
| Result complement | 做好 | ||
| Prepositional phrase | Result complement | 做好 | |
| Result complement | 做好 |
* OK, these are adjectives, not verbs!
References
- ↑ A Practical Chinese Grammar for Foreigners, p. 271
- ↑ For more info on this common mistake, see this website.
Sources and further reading
- Grammar book: Chinese Grammar Without Tears (简明汉语语法学习手册), Chapter 6: Complements
- Grammar book: 外国人实用汉语语法(中英文对照) (pp. 242 - 243, pp. 271 - 329)
- Baidu Baike (Chinese): 补语
- Blog entry (Chinese): 状态补语
