Mandarin · Chapter 14 · Lesson 15 · Grammar primer
Resultative complements
Fusing a result morpheme onto the verb so it reports an outcome, not just an attempt: 看见 (see), 听懂 (understand), 吃完 (finish eating), 找到 (find). The common result set 完/好/到/见/懂/会/错/对/成/住/掉, why 了 follows the whole unit, why negation uses 没 not 不 (没看完), and the V + 没有 question form.
The short version
The 了 (le) goes after the result, not inside it
看见 (kàn jiàn), 吃完 (chī wán) and 找到 (zhǎo dào) fuse into single units, so treat verb-plus-result as one longer verb: 我吃完了 (wǒ chī wán le), never 我吃了完 (wǒ chī le wán). Negate the whole unit with 没 (méi) and the 了 (le) drops: 我没看见他 (wǒ méi kàn jiàn tā). 不 (bù) negates willingness and habit, which is not what a failed outcome is.
我吃完了。 Wǒ chī wán le.
That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why - and the practice below scores like a vocabulary session and earns the same XP.
Read the full article · 8 min readPractice
Practise this lesson
24-question session
One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end.
Mandarin · Free printables
Worksheets for this lesson
Worksheets with answer keys built in. Open any one to view, print or save.
Free for members
The printable worksheets, infographics and PDFs are free with an account. Start a free week and download as many as you like.
Start your free weekLesson 15 of 24 in this chapter