Expressing Result in Mandarin Chinese

From UniLang Wiki

A lot of verbs consist of a main verb and another verb or adjective, the complement of result, the entity as a whole can then be called a resultative verb.

Resultative verbs modify the meaning of the main verb in a specific way, usually to indicate a result.

Because most such verbs describe results and are therefore completed, negation is usually done with 没有 (méi yǒu).

An example:

• 我吃饱了 - (wǒ chī báo le) - Literal: I eat full [PAST.TENSE] - I ate enough / I am full
• 我没有吃饱了 - (wǒ méi yǒu chī báo le) - Literal: I not have eat full [PAST.TENSE] - I have not eaten enough / I am not full yet

The resultative verb is 吃饱 （chī báo), where 饱 (báo) is the complement of result. Each verb has its own set of possibile complements of result. There are several common ones which can be used with many verbs. We will discuss them

Contents 1 完 (wán) 2 好 (hăo) 3 �?� （zhăo) 4 zhù (住) 5 到 (dào) 6 见(jiàn)

完 (wán)

This complement indicates the action is finished/completed:

• 我吃完了 - (wǒ chīwán le) - I finished eating
• 我喝完了 - (wǒ hēwán le) - I finished drinking
• 我看完了 - (wǒ kànwán le) - I finished watching/looking/reading
• 我写完了 - (wǒ xiěwán le) - I finished writing
• 我用完了 - (wǒ yòngwán le) - I finished using / I'm done using

好 (hăo)

This complement indicates you are done with the action:

• 我吃好了 - (wǒ chīhăo le) - I'm done eating
• 我做好了.... - (wǒ zuòhăo le) - I'm done doing ......
• 我写好了 - (wǒ xiěhăo le) - I'm done writing

�?� （zhăo)

This complement indicates you succeeded at doing something:

• 我睡�?�了 - (wǒ shuìzhăo le) - (succeeded sleeping) - I fell asleep
• 我找�?�了 - (wǒ zhăozhăo le) - (succeeded searching) - I found

zhù (住)

This complement indicates a fixation of the action, to "hold" or "halt" something:

• 我记住了 - (wǒ jìzhù le) - I remembered
• 我战住了 - (wǒ zhànzhù le) - I halted
• 我方向盘把住了 - (wǒ f�?ngxiàngpán băzhù le) - I held the steering wheel [firmly]

到 (dào)

This complement can be a bit vague because it can express three things:

• Reaching a specific location expressed by the action of the main verb
  • 我坐火车坐到北京 - (wǒ zuò huòchē, zuòdào běijīng) - I sit train, sit-until beijing - I go to (till) Beijing by train
• The duration of the action
  • [EXAMPLE TO BE ADDED STILL]
• The result of the action
  • [EXAMPLE TO BE ADDED STILL]

见(jiàn)

This complement changes the meaning of the verb to an eventual form, it's used mainly with the following verbs dealing with perception:

• 听 (tīng) - to listen; 听见 (tīngjiàn) - to hear
• 看 （kàn) - to look; 看见 (kànjiàn) - to see
• 闻 (wén) - to sniff/to smell; 闻见 (wénjiàn) - to smell

Example:

• 我没看见什么 (wǒ méi kànjiàn shénme) - I didn't see anything