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How to use descriptive complements in Mandarin Chinese?

By: Chun-Yi Peng Fri Aug 30 2024
Mandarin chinese
Complements

In Mandarin, descriptive complements are expressions that complete the meaning of a given sentence and describe how an action is performed (e.g. how well, how fast, how much, etc.). For example, you would use it to express the concept of "slowly" as in, "I walk slowly." For that, we use the structure “ (de) + descriptive complement,” and here is how it works:

Subject
(Verb + object)
Verb
Descriptive complement

()

I

吃飯

(chīfàn)

eat (a meal)

(chī)

eat

(de)

很快。

(hěn kuài.)

very fast.

()

She

喝咖啡

(hē kāfēi)

drink coffee

()

drink

(de)

多不多?

(duō bù duō?)

a lot or not a lot?

()

He

难过

(nánguò)

sad

(de)

流下眼泪。

(liúxià yǎnlèi.)

shed a tear.

奶奶

(Nǎinai)

Grandma

(zǒu)

walk

(de)

很慢。

(hěn màn.)

very slowly.

()

He

高兴

(gāoxìng)

be happy

(de)

不得了。

(bùdéliǎo.)

extremely.

In the examples above,  (de) is a function word, which means it has no meaning, only the function to connect the verb/adjective and the descriptive complement. Descriptive complements can come in many forms, such as adjectives, adverbs, or clauses. In this post, we’re going to tell you more about how to use a descriptive complement to describe an action. Let’s read on!

Table of Contents

    When to use “verb + 得 (de) + descriptive complement” in Mandarin Chinese?

    In Mandarin Chinese, use the “verb +  (de) + descriptive complement” structure to modify or describe an action. In English, it is common that we use a "-ly" word to modify an action. For example, "He speaks slowly" where "slowly" modifies the action of speaking. In Mandarin, a descriptive complement is necessary. For example,

    • 很多

      (Tā chī de hěn duō.)

      He eats a lot.

    Important
    • When using an adverb, like (duō, much) above, as the complement, it is important to have a degree adverb before it. The most common degree adverb in Mandarin is (hěn, very). And since (hěn, very) has been used so much, it has increasingly become a generic degree adverb and doesn’t always carry the meaning of "very."

    • Please keep in mind that Mandarin doesn’t distinguish between adjectives and adverbs, that is, words like “beautiful” and “beautifully,” or “slow” and “slowly.”

    In the sentence above, 很多 (hěn dūo, very much) is the complement of (chī, eat), and we add a  (de) to connect the two. As mentioned above,  (de) doesn’t have an actual meaning. Its function is to connect the verb and the complement.

    We can also use this structure to modify mental verbs in Mandarin Chinese. For example,

    • 害怕得一直发抖

      (Tā hàipà de yīzhí fādǒu.)

      He was so scared that he kept shaking.

    Here 害怕 (hàipà, to be scared) is the mental verb being modified, and 一直发抖 (yīzhí fādǒu, keep shaking) is the complement. You probably also notice that if you’re modifying a mental verb, then the complement is usually a verb or an adverb.

    Now, let’s dive in a little more!

    When to use “VOV + 得 (de) + descriptive complement” in Mandarin Chinese?

    If the verb comes with an object, then we need to repeat the verb, like this: verb + object + verb (VOV) +  (de) + modifier. Here’s an example:

    • 钢琴很开心

      (Tā tán gāngqín tán de hěn kāixīn.)

      He plays the piano very happily.

    In this example, 弹钢琴 (tán gāngqín, play the piano) is a combination of a verb (tán, play) and an object 钢琴 (gāngqín, piano), commonly known as a verb-object (VO) compound. Therefore, we need to repeat the verb  (tán) after the object 钢琴 (gāngqín), so we get 钢琴弹 (tán gāngqín tán de), followed by 很开心 (hěn kāixīn, very happily), which is the complement. Let’s look at another example:

    • 汉字累不累

      (Nǐ xiě hànzì xiě de lèibùlèi?)

      Are you tired writing Chinese characters?

    Here we use 累不累 (lèibùlèi, tired or not tired) to make an A-not-A question asking, "Are you tired writing Chinese characters?" In the case of verb-object-verb (VOV) +  (de), you can drop the first verb (but you can never drop the second verb):

    • 汉字累不累

      (Nǐ xiě hànzì xiě de lèibùlèi?)

      Are you tired writing Chinese characters?

    • 汉字不累

      (Wǒ hànzì xiě de bùlèi.)

      I’m not tired writing Chinese characters.

    This can be remembered as the VOV structure, where the first V can be dropped. Remember, we need to use the VOV structure when working with a VO compound. Let’s take a look at some common VO compounds in Mandarin.

    What are common VO compounds in Mandarin Chinese?

    The VO compound is a very common structure in Mandarin. As the name suggests, VO compounds consist of a verb and an object. Some VO compounds are more obvious than others. For example, you can easily recognize the following three VO compounds:

    VO compounds
    Examples with descriptive complement
    汉字 (xiě Hànzì, write Chinese characters)

    她写汉字写得很漂亮。

    (Tā xiě Hànzì xiě de hěn piàoliang.)

    She writes Chinese characters beautifully.

    篮球 (dǎ lánqiú, play basketball)

    我打篮球打得忘记了吃饭。

    (Wǒ dǎ lánqiú dǎ de wàngjìle chīfàn.)

    I was playing basketball so that I forgot to eat.

    (zuò fàn, cook (make meal))

    爸爸做饭做得很香。

    (Bàba zuò fàn zuò de hěnxiāng.)

    Dad is cooking and it smells good.

    In these phrases, there’s an apparent object following the verb. For example, (xiě, to write) is the verb and 汉字 (hànzì, Chinese characters) is the object. Some VO compounds, however, may not be so obvious at first glance. For example:

    VO compounds
    Examples with descriptive complement
    (yóuyǒng, swim)

    他游泳游得真快。

    (Tā yóuyǒng yóu de zhēn kuài.)

    He swims (a swim) really fast.

    (tiàowǔ, dance)

    陈老师跳舞跳得不错。

    (Chén lǎoshī tiàowǔ tiào de bùcuò.)

    Teacher Chen dances (a dance) well.

    (shuìjiào, sleep)

    你昨天睡觉睡得好不好?

    (Nǐ zuótiān shuìjiào shuì de hǎobù hǎo?)

    Did you sleep (a sleep) well last night?

    (shuōhuà, talk)

    她说话说得很慢。

    (Tā shuōhuà shuō de hěn màn.)

    She talks (a talk) very slowly.

    (huàhuà, draw)

    你画画画得很传神。

    (Nǐ huàhuà huà de hěn chuánshén.)

    You draw (a painting) very vividly.

    (pǎobù, run)

    我跑步跑得有点慢。

    (Wǒ pǎobù pǎo de yǒudiǎn màn.)

    I run (a run) a little slowly.

    (zǒulù, walk)

    妈妈走路走得特别快。

    (Māmā zǒulù zǒu de tèbié kuài.)

    Mom walks (a walk) very fast.

    (chànggē, sing)

    你唱歌唱得很好听。

    (Nǐ chànggē chàng de hěn hǎotīng.)

    You sing (a song) very well.

    If you look at the meaning of these phrases (e.g., swim, dance, run, etc.), there’s really no apparent object involved. But in Mandarin, these phrases are, in fact, made up of a verb and an object. Take (yóuyǒng, swim) for example. (yóu, swim) is the verb for swim, and (yǒng, swim) the noun for swim. So when you say (yóuyǒng, swim), you’re literally saying "swim a swim." Similar ideas apply to other phrases on the list, too. (Note: this is not an exhaustive list.)

    Some may look like a VO compound simply because they also have two syllables (i.e., two characters) but they’re actually not. They are verbs only:

    Verbs
    Examples with descriptive complement
    工作 (gōngzuò, work)

    他每天都工作得很辛苦。

    (Tā měitiān dū gōngzuò de hěn xīnkǔ.)

    He works hard every day.

    练习 (liànxí, practice)

    他练习得很勤快。

    (Tā liànxí de hěn qínkuài.)

    He practices diligently.

    锻炼 (duànliàn, work out)

    他把自己锻炼得非常壮。

    (Tā bǎ zìjǐ duànliàn de fēicháng zhuàng.)

    He trained himself to be very strong.

    To sum up

    In this post, we talked about how to use descriptive complements to modify an action, such as 他吃得很开心 (Tā chī de hěn kāixīn, He ate happily), where  (de) connects the descriptive complement 很开心 (hěn kāixīn, (very) happily) and the action of eating. We can simply summarize the pattern as follows:

    • V + + descriptive complement

    • (V)OV + + descriptive complement

    Now, are you ready to put this sentence pattern to work? Let’s check out our exercises to practice using descriptive complements in Mandarin Chinese!

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