Complement Sentence in Chinese Grammar

In iChineseLearning’s online mandarin class, the usage of complement is always a challenging thing. Now, let’s summarize how to make sentences with complements.

In Chinese, a verb can be followed by another word to explain its further meaning, which is known as a complement. A complement indicates the degree of the verb. In a complement sentence, the particle “得” , which indicates how the actions are done is often used to connect the verb and the complement.

Learning sentence pattern is always a good way to learn Chinese grammar online. Now let’s see the pattern of a complement sentence:

S + N + V + 得 + Complement

wǒ zúqiú tī dé hǎo.

1. 我 足球 踢 得 好。

  I am good at playing football.

tā hànyǔ shuō dé hǎo.

2. 她 汉语 说 得 好。

  She is good at speaking Chinese.

When we want to express the negative meaning, “不” can be added before the complement.

wǒ zúqiú tī dé bùhǎo.

3. 我 足球 踢 得 不好。

  I am not good at playing football.

tā hànyǔ shuō dé bùhǎo.

4. 她 汉语 说 得 不好。

  She is not good at speaking Chinese.

There is another sentence pattern to express a complement in Chinese. If the verb is followed by an object, the verb should be repeated after the object.

S + V + O + V + 得 + complement

tā shuōhànyǔ shuō dé hǎo.

5. 她 说汉语 说 得 好。

  She is good at speaking Chinese.

tā chànɡɡē chànɡ dé hǎotīnɡ.

6. 她 唱歌 唱 得 好听。

  She is good at singing songs.