68 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
68 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
A complement is a grammatical unit, generally made up of a verbal or an adjectival expression, that appears after the main verb in a sentence to enhance its meaning. The Chinese language contains many various types of complements.
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# Complement of Degree
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#得
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The complement of degree provides a degree to which the verb occurs. In Chinese, 得 is used to join it to the verb it modifies:
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```
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Verb + 得 + (Degree Adverb + Adjective)
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( Complement of Degree )
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```
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1. 他吃得很多 tā chī de hěn duō "he ate a lot"
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2. 他写得很好 tā xiě de hěn hǎo "he writes really well"
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3. 他来得很晚 tā lái de hěn wǎn "he came very late"
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## Questions
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Questions can be formed in this pattern, either affirmative-negative, or interrogative:
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1. 古波学得认真不认真？
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Gǔbō xué de rènzhēn bu rènzhēn?
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Does Gubo study conscientously?
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2. 爸爸走得很快吗？
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Bàba zǒu de hěn kuài ma?
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Does Dad walk fast?
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3. 他准备得怎么样？
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tā zhǔnbèi de zěnmeyàng?
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How did he do in his preparation?
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## Verbs with Objects and Complements
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What if a verb takes an object and is modified by a complement.
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### Establishing Another Verbal Unit
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In this case, the verb is repeated - first with the object, then modified by the complement:
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```
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Verb + Object + Verb + Complement
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```
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1. 他说英语说得很慢
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tā shuō de yīngyǔ shuō de hěn màn
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He speaks English slowly
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2. 他回答问题回答得非常好
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tā huídá wèntí huídá de fēicháng hǎo
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He answers questions very well
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3. 他写汉字写得不整齐
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tā xiě hànzì xiě de bù zhěngqí
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He doesn't write Chinese characters neatly
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4. 他吃饭吃得多不多？
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tā chī fàn chī de duō bu duō?
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Does he eat much?
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5. 他整理房间整理得怎么样？
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tā zhěnglǐ fángjiān zhěnglǐ de zěnmeyàng?
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How did he do in cleaning his room?
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### Topicalisation
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Topicalisation involves moving the object to the front of the sentence: either before the predicate, or before the entire sentence. The object must represent some known information. In this case, we don't have to repeat the verb:
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```
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Subject + Object + Verb + Complement
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or
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Object + Subject + Verb + Complement
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```
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1. He is doing quite well in his studying of Chinese:
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a. 他学汉语学得很不错。
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b. 他汉语学得很不错。
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c. 汉语他学得很不错。
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2. He answered those questions expeditiously:
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a. 他回答那些问题回答得很快。
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b. 他那些问题回答得很快。
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c. 那些问题他回答得很快。
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Generally, it's more common to move the object to the front of the sentence when the object is lengthy or complicated (so: use examples (c) above). |