Mandarin · Chapter 15 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
Potential complements
Inserting 得 or 不 into a result/direction complement to say whether the action CAN reach its result: 吃得完/吃不完, 听得懂/听不懂, 看得见/看不见, 买得起/买不起, 来得及/来不及. Why the negative 不 form dominates speech, how it differs from 能/可以 (inherent achievability vs permission), and why it is not the manner 得 of 跑得快.
The short version
Negatives first: 听不懂 (tīng bù dǒng) is real speech
Split a resultative with 得 (de) or 不 (bù) and you get possibility: 吃得完 (chī de wán) against 吃不完 (chī bù wán), 听得懂 (tīng de dǒng) against 听不懂 (tīng bù dǒng). In real conversation the 不 (bù) half dominates, because people are forever saying they can't finish, can't hear, can't afford. Drill those until they are automatic.
你说得太快，我听不懂。 Nǐ shuō de tài kuài, wǒ tīng bu dǒng.
听不懂 (tīng bù dǒng) is 'can't', 没听懂 (méi tīng dǒng) 'didn't'
Two different failures. 没听懂 (méi tīng dǒng) says that on this occasion the understanding did not happen; 听不懂 (tīng bù dǒng) says it cannot happen at all. The potential complement negates by swapping 得 (de) for 不 (bù), never with 没 (méi), and it will not stack with 能 (néng): pick 我听得懂 (wǒ tīng de dǒng) or 我能听懂 (wǒ néng tīng dǒng).
听不懂 tīng bu dǒng
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