How to use descriptive complements in Mandarin Chinese?

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 “得 (transcribed de) + descriptive complement,” and here is how it works:

In the examples above, 得 (transcribed 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!

In Mandarin Chinese, use the “verb + 得 (transcribed 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,

• 他吃得很多。

  Transcription: Tā chī de hěn duō.

  Translation: He eats a lot.

In the sentence above, 很多 (transcribed hěn dūo, meaning “very much”) is the complement of 吃 (transcribed chī, meaning “eat”), and we add a 得 (transcribed de) to connect the two. As mentioned above, 得 (transcribed 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,

• 他害怕得一直发抖。

  Transcription: Tā hàipà de yīzhí fādǒu.

  Translation: He was so scared that he kept shaking.

Here 害怕 (transcribed hàipà, meaning “to be scared”) is the mental verb being modified, and 一直发抖 (transcribed yīzhí fādǒu, meaning “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!

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

• 他弹钢琴弹得很开心。

  Transcription: Tā tán gāngqín tán de hěn kāixīn.

  Translation: He plays the piano very happily.

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

• 你写汉字写得累不累？

  Transcription: Nǐ xiě hànzì xiě de lèibùlèi?

  Translation: Are you tired writing Chinese characters?

Here we use 累不累 (transcribed lèibùlèi, meaning “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) + 得 (transcribed de), you can drop the first verb (but you can never drop the second verb):

1. 你汉字写得累不累？

   Transcription: Nǐ xiě hànzì xiě de lèibùlèi?

   Translation: Are you tired writing Chinese characters?
2. 我汉字写得不累。

   Transcription: Wǒ hànzì xiě de bùlèi.

   Translation: I’m not tired writing Chinese characters.

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

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:

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

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 游泳 (transcribed yóuyǒng, meaning “swim”) for example. 游 (transcribed yóu, meaning “swim”) is the verb for swim, and 泳 (transcribed yǒng, meaning “swim”) the noun for swim. So when you say 游泳 (transcribed yóuyǒng, meaning “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:

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

1. V + 得 + descriptive complement

2. (V)OV + 得 + 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!