Potential complements

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Structure

Potential complements can be positive or negative. What this means is fairly intuitive - potential complements can be used to express that something can happen or that it can't.

Verb + 得 / 不 + [complement]

Here [complement] is the second part of the potential complement after 得 (positive) or 不 (negative). So if the verb can be adjective, 得 is used. If the verb can not be adjective, 不 is used.

Examples

  • 汉字 他 写 好。
  • 汉字 我 写 好。
  • 中文 你 说 很 好听。


Note that the potential complement and degree complement can often appear to be the same; the difference can usually be seen from context.

See also

Sources and and further reading

Books

Websites

Yale

HSK4