Advanced "le" with complements
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You may have learned that 了 (le) follows immediately after a verb to indicate completion (AKA 了1), and comes at the end of a sentence when it indicates a "change of state" (AKA 了2). But what about when a complement comes after the verb? Does that count as part of the verb or not? The answer, as it often is with 了, is "it's complicated."
Contents
Two Possible Structures
Both of these structures are possible (and correct).
Subj. + Verb + Complement + 了
Subj. + Verb + 了 + Complement
The former is more common in informal speech, while the latter is more common in written language.
了 After the Complement
This is fine for most verb-complement structures. No real limits here.
Some examples：
- 买 到 了 。
- 做 起来 了 。
- 吃 完 了 。
- 穿 好 了 。
了 After a Verb with a Complement
While you do NOT do this with result complements (e.g. 完, 好, etc.), it is a very common structure with direction complements in written Chinese.
Some examples：
- 站 了 起来 。
- 走 了 上去 。
- 吃 了 起来 。
- 跑 了 过来 。
