What is a “result complement” in Chinese?

A result complement suffix is where a complement character or characters is added after a verb to communicate the outcome or result. In English this is the equivalent of the difference between “listen” and “hear” or “look” and “see”. It’s important to understand that in Chinese many verbs don’t include the result, so th completement character or characters are added to communicate this.

The typical patter for a result complement is:

result complement = verb + complement

Where A complement is either a verb or adjective.

Here are some examples:

Verb Verb + Complement
look kàn see kànjiàn
listen tīng hear tīngdào
listen tīng understand tīngdào
listen tīng mishear tīngcuò
to do zuò to complete zuòwán
pull pull open kāi
to shut guān to close guān
to wipe to wipe clean gānjìng

Typically the complement is single character such as “arrive” dào, cuò, or kāi, however it can be two charcters such as “clean” gānjìng as is the case in “to wipe clean” gānjìng.

Here is a list of common adjective complements:

Adjective Complement Example
“mistake”
cuò
“to make a mistake”
zuòcuò
“dirty”
zàng
“to make diry”
nòngzāng
“clear”
qīngchu
“hear clearly”
tīngqīngchu
“well”
hǎo
“prepared”
zhǔnbèihǎo
“clean”
gānjìng
“wip clean”
gānjìng

This is a list of common verb complements:

Verb Complement Example
“understand”
dǒng
“understand”
tīngdǒng
“stop”
zhù
“hold firmly”
zhù
“open”
kāi
“打开”
kāi
“reduce”, “fall”
diào
”wipe off”
diào
“broken”
“to break”
“fall”
dào
“fall down”
shuāidǎo
“drop”, “shed”
diào
“sell off”
màidiào
“complete”
wán
“to complete”
zuòwán
“awaken”
xǐng
“to wake up”
jiàoxǐng