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Degree Complement - Chinese Grammar Wiki PDF
Degree Complement - Chinese Grammar Wiki PDF
Level
B1 / HSK2
Similar to
Negative adjectives with "-si le" (A2)
Direction complement (B1)
Adjectival complement "de budeliao" (B2)
Adjectival complement "de hen" (B2)
Advanced degree complements (B2)
Used for
Expressing degree
Keywords
得
Contents
1 When to use it
2 Basic Pattern Following Verbs
2.1 Structure
2.2 Examples
When to use it
Until now, you may have been getting by just fine modifying your verbs with adverbs. You can
use 非常 to say "very" and all that. Great. But once you learn to use degree complements, a whole
new layer of expressiveness is infused into your language. You will be able to express degree of
verbs and adjectives with much more precision and color. But how do you know when to use the
degree complement? Here are the main reasons to use it:
For the first case, the most typical examples would be describing how well an action is done, or in
asking how well an action is done, which are sometimes also classified as descriptive
complements and state complements.
Structure
Examples
Just like little kids, objects and complements don't know how to share. Make sure each gets its
own (identical) verb. Also make sure that the object comes after the first instance of the verb,
and the complement after the second.
Note: the 你的中文 in the sentence above can also be 你中文 (without the 的). When it makes sense
to include the 的, it often sounds better.
Just to be completely clear, the following sentences are both incorrect:
There are three especially common degree complements which can follow adjectives
immediately and are not preceded by a 得:
1. 极了 often comes after adjectives with positive connotations (often 好), indicating an extremely
high degree.
2. 死了 usually comes after adjectives with negative connotations (like 忙, 累, 臭, 难看) and are
commonly used to exaggerate the degree of how bad something is. In recent years, however, 死
了 also comes after adjectives with positive connotations.
3. 坏了 is a bit like the complement 死了 and can be used to mean "extremely" in either a positive
or a negative sense.
Examples
Degree complements are commonly directly preceded by an adverb like 很. For example: 她说得
很清楚. This serves to distinguish them from potential complements, which are never directly
preceded by an adverb.
Generally speaking, the complement of degree is a grammatical unit that describes the
main verb of the sentence. Specifically, the complement of degree is an assessment of
an action or a description of the consequential state of an action. It may also be a
description of the degree of a state.
Okayyy, so it sounds like descriptions and states are all degree complements? That's one of the
views on the issue.
None of these classifications truly matters though: the key is understanding them and using
complements correctly to express yourself in Chinese. (This is already difficult without adding in
unnecessary academic distinctions!)
References
1. See the article What is the complement of degree? (http://comet.cls.yale.edu/mandarin/content/
degree/grammar/Degree-1.htm) by Ling Mu, Rongzhen Li, and Peisong Xu.
See also
Advanced degree complements
Complement "-huai le"
Adjectives with "-ji le"
A Practical Chinese Grammar For Foreigners (外国人实用汉语语法) (pp. 284-292) Anything Goes
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Chinese: An Essential Grammar, Second Edition (pp. 105-6) Anything Goes (无所不谈) →buy (htt
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Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 2 (3rd ed) (pp. 139) Anything Goes (无所不谈) →buy (http://ww
w.amazon.cn/mn/detailApp?_encoding=UTF8&tag=allset-23&linkCode=as2&asin=B001J0ADWA
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40 Lessons for Basic Chinese Course (基础汉语40课上册) (pp. 141) [ →buy]
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