Complement types: integrated review

Chinese grammar · HSK 4 · 补语综合复习 · By Carson 木林森

HSK-4 uses six complement types. Each answers a different question about the verb:

| Type | Key marker | Question answered | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Result | V+好/完/到/住/清楚 | What resulted? | 做完 (finished doing) |
| Potential | V+得/不+C | Can/cannot? | 看不懂 (can't understand) |
| Directional | V+来/去/起来/下去 | Which direction? | 走出来 (walked out) |
| Degree | V+得+Adj | How well? | 说得很流利 |
| Duration | V+了+Time | How long? | 等了两小时 |
| Frequency | V+次/遍/趟 | How many times? | 读了三遍 |

This topic tests discrimination between complement types in context.

Worked examples

Chinese	Pinyin	English	What it shows
他把那道菜做得非常好吃。	Tā bǎ nà dào cài zuò de fēi cháng hǎo chī.	He made that dish extremely delicious.	Degree complement: V+得+Adj evaluates the quality of the action
那本小说我看了整整三天才看完。	Nà běn xiǎo shuō wǒ kàn le zhěng zhěng sān tiān cái kàn wán.	That novel took me a full three days to finish reading.	Duration (看了三天) + result (看完) in the same sentence — different complements
这道题我做了好几遍，还是做不对。	Zhè dào tí wǒ zuò le hǎo jǐ biàn, hái shì zuò bù duì.	I did this problem many times but still can't get it right.	Frequency (好几遍) + potential negative (做不对) — testing two complement types in contrast

Produce this pattern without stopping to think about it. GraphChinese drills Complement types across 13 exercises and schedules the review that keeps it.

What you need first

Every topic in GraphChinese names its own prerequisites, and these are the grammar points this one is built on. If a sentence here will not parse, one of them is why.

Complement types is one topic of 829. GraphChinese teaches them in prerequisite order, so this pattern reaches you on the day everything it rests on is proven. The whole course, HSK 0 through HSK 6, is $49 once for lifetime access.

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