Complement

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Also known as: 补语 (bǔyǔ) and objective complement.

Complements are 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].

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.

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.

Main Complement Types, with Examples
Type of ComplementVerbParticleComplementEnglish
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tired "to death"
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.

Structure of Complements
Word Preceding ComplementComplement ContentComplement TypesExample
VerbVerbResult complement做 完
Potential complement看 得 懂
Direction complement走 回来
AdjectiveResult complement做 好
State complement想 得 很 简单
Prepositional phraseLocation complement住 在 北京
Time complement生 于 69 年
Measure word phrasesQuantity complement去 一 次
AdjectiveAdjectiveDegree complement做 完
Result complement做 好
AdverbDegree complement好 极了
Result complement做 好
Other phraseState complement响 得 让 人 发疯

When to use complements

You might be wondering: when do I use a complement? That's a good question, because often there are non-complement ways to express what the complement expresses. For example, do you use the 不了 complement after a verb, or do you put 不能 before the verb? Do you use an adverb before the verb (快快地跑), or do you put the same information in a complement after the verb (跑得快)? The sad answer is that it depends. There are many factors involved.

As a learner, the best thing you can do is to memorize the complements you encounter the most often, and start using them. The longer you've been using them, the more natural they'll feel, and when to use them will become clearer and clearer. One good place to start is our list of common verbs with complements.

References

  1. ↑ A Practical Chinese Grammar for Foreigners, p. 271
  2. ↑ For more info on this common mistake, see this website.

Sources and further reading

Books

Websites

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