Complement Sentence Using 得

In the hsk online course, we introduced the usage of complement in Chinese. To most people, this grammar point is always very challenging. Now we will illustrate with two types of sentences using 得. Before that, let’s know what a complement is.

 

In Chinese, a verb can be followed by another word to explain its further meaning, which is known as a complement. A complement indicates the degree of the verb. In a complement sentence, the particle “得” , which indicates how the actions are done is often used to connect the verb and the complement.

 

Now let’s see the first type of sentence using a complement:

 

S + N + V + 得 + Complement

wǒ zúqiú tī dé hǎo.

1. 我 足球 踢 得 好。

  I am good at playing football.

 

tā hànyǔ shuō dé hǎo.

2. 她 汉语 说 得 好。

  She is good at speaking Chinese.

 

When we want to express the negative meaning, “不” can be added before the complement.

wǒ zúqiú tī dé bùhǎo.

3. 我 足球 踢 得 不好。

  I am not good at playing football.

 

tā hànyǔ shuō dé bùhǎo.

4. 她 汉语 说 得 不好。

  She is not good at speaking Chinese.

 

There is another sentence pattern to express a complement in Chinese. If the verb is followed by an object, the verb should be repeated after the object.

S + V + O + V + 得 + complement

tā shuōhànyǔ shuō dé hǎo.

5. 她 说汉语 说 得 好。

  She is good at speaking Chinese.

 

tā chànɡɡē chànɡ dé hǎotīnɡ.

6. 她 唱歌 唱 得 好听。

  She is good at singing songs.

Feel free to explore more hsk grammar. The grammar rules are explained in a brief and straight-forward way. Every sentence example has a recording made by our native teachers so that you can listen and repeat.

How to Say Indoors man in Chinese?

Are you a home guy? If yes, how long can you stay at home without going out? Maybe a week or a month but you definitely can’t compare with a Japanese otaku who hasn’t walked out of his house for twenty seven years. He is forty three years old now and he began to live indoor at age sixteen when having a computer was not common. But until now he still doesn’t have network, computer, game machine, even a cell phone. For twenty seven years, his daily life has been watching TV, newspaper, magazines, and taking photos. And the only person he can talk to is his mother who is sixty nine years old. He says sometimes he feels a little lonely but nothing more. So, how to describe such a guy in Chinese?

In Chinese, we say a man is a “宅男” (“zhái nán ”) if he always stay at home, and “宅女”(”zhái nǚ”)if the person is a girl. The word “宅” (“zhái ”) comes from “住宅”(”zhù zhái ” )which means a house, so if a person who is always staying at home and unwilling to go out, we can say that person is very “宅”，and here “宅”is used as an adjective. Besides, “宅” can also be used as a verb in such phrases as “宅在家里”(“ zhái zài jiā lǐ ”) ，and here “宅”means stay.

Some examples to learn from：

zài zhōnɡɡuó ，zúbùchūhù de zháinán zháinǚ kéyǐ tōnɡ ɡuò wǎnɡluò liáojiě shìjiè 。

在中国，足不出户的宅男宅女可以通过网络了解世界。

In China, many indoorsmen and women can learn about the world though Internet.

tā dōu yíɡèyuè méi chūmén le ，yě tài zhái le bɑ 。

他都一个月没出门了， 也太宅了吧。

He hasn’t been out for a month. He is such an indoors man!

“越来越(yuè lái yuè )……” and “越(yuè)A越(yuè)B”

As the first advanced lesson of HSK grammar, the difference of  “越来越……” and “越A越B” has confused many.

The meaning of “越来越……”  is  Getting more and more. It means somebody or something has an obvious change and it keep tendency of changing.

 

E.g.:

地球上的资源越来越少了。（the resource of the earth getting less and less.）

随着中国的发展，我们与国外的贸易交流越来越频繁了。（with the development of China，the trading with 佛热斌countries getting more and more frequently.）

The meaning of “越A越B” is that B is changing with A . If B has changed, A is changing gradually. Causality is between A and B. there are two sentence patterns: X 越 A越B；X越A，Y越B.

E.g.:

植物越长越茂盛。（Plants grow more and more flourish.）

你锻炼得越多，身体就越健康。（The more you exercise, the healthier you will be.）

Sometimes you may be confused with teacher’s explanation about synonyms and similar phrases in Chinese.  It’s a period to accumulate these difficult knowledge points. If you make it successfully, you will make a great progress. And you will find that Chinese grammar is not as difficult as you thought. 

What’s the Difference Between “唱歌(chàng gē)”and“歌唱(gē chàng)”

In the process of learning Chinese, your vocabulary is increasing gradually. At the same time, you often have trouble in distinguishing synonyms. There are many synonyms in HSK grammar, and they are the same in essentials while differing in points. Like “唱歌”and“歌唱”，the handwriting is very similar, but the usages is different. So what's the difference between them? What do they actually emphasize in the specific case and in more general sentences?

Both of them are verbs. The meaning of them is singing a song. However, “唱歌” is often used in general occasions, you can say “某人唱歌好听(someone is singing well)”“某人唱歌难听(someone is singing bad)”there is no strict limitation that you can also use it in formal and informal cases.

E.g.:

小时候她很喜欢唱歌跳舞。(When she was young, she liked to sing and dance .)

唱歌不好听，怎么能当歌手呢？(You are not good at singing, how could you be a professional singer?)

In addition, you could make a little change of the verb “唱歌”. “唱唱歌” is the overlap of it, you can add the quantifier in the middle of “唱歌”, just like “唱支歌”、“唱两首歌”.

The verb“歌唱” is often used in formal cases. Meanwhile, it has a special usage that used to show your love to something or somebody by songs, poets and papers. It’s often mentioned something good.

E.g.:

这首曲子是歌唱生命与自由的。(This song is singing the praises of life and freedom.)

Normally, you can use it with nouns. Such as “歌唱自然(sing praises of nature)”“歌唱丰收(sing praises of harvest)”.

Related Links:

hsk exercises

grammar 越来越

duplication of verbs 

The Overlap of Verbs in Chinese

The overlapping of verbs is a very important HSK grammar point. You probably have known that verbs can be used to describe an action or to show possibility, necessity or will in Chinese. Besides, if you overlap a certain verbs, the meaning will be changed. There are many overlap styles of verbs. Give you some examples:

1.      （A-AA）看-看看，写-写写，说-说说，想-想想

2.      （AB-ABAB）商量-商量商量，讨论-讨论讨论

3.      （A-A不A）走-走不走，去-去不去

4.      （A-A了A）听-听了听，想-想了想

The verb’s overlapping expression is a short time action.

E.g.:

你明晚有空，上我这儿来坐坐，聊聊天吧。(If you have spare time tomorrow night, you can come my house to have a talk.)

This sentence pattern is also express that you can have a try.

E.g.:

你走走，就知道这路有多不平了。（Just walk and you know how rough the road is.）

When the verb is overlapped, the tone is more euphemistic. It’s more polite than you say directly.

E.g.:

这件事我们需要商量。/这件事我们需要商量商量。

The pronunciation of words is very rhythmic. It just sounds like a little song when you read it again and again. Chinese is not as difficult as people say, you need to learn it with a cheerful mood. 

Chinese zodiac animals and their personality traits 2

For some, Chinese zodiac animals and the personalities they represent may seem untrue or even superstitious, but this is part of Chinese culture. And learning Chinese culture is proven to be a good way to learn Chinese online, because we can gain knowledge with interest and at the same time know more about China.

In the previous post of “Chinese zodiac animals and their personality traits 1”, we have introduced how to predict a person’s zodiac animal and the representative personality traits and characteristics of 6 animals of dragon, pig, dog, rooster, monkey and sheep.

Horse Personality Traits

Like the personality of Tiger people with whom they are most compatible, people born in the year of Horse can be a jumble of contradictions. They are cool but hot-blooded, hard-nosed but humble, impatient but extraordinarily tolerant The Horse is above all defined by hard work and self-reliance.

Snake Personality Traits

Like a deep river, Snake people are usually placid on the surface, but their thoughts and emotions run very deep. Quiet and unassuming, they prefer to work by themselves and are more often in the spotlight for their real and lasting accomplishments than for outward attempts at garnering attention.

Rabbit Personality Traits

Although generally calm, gentle and loving, Rabbit people can be very ambitious and most of the time they know how to get ahead in the world. They are good listeners, kind and sweet by nature, and are therefore often sought out as popular and trusted friends. Generally noted for their physical beauty, Rabbits like to surround themselves with beautiful things. They have a good eye for art, design and fashion, and are usually at the top of anyone's Best Dressed list.

Rat Personality Traits

People born in the Year of the Rat are one of the most industrious and hardest working in the zodiac. Forever busy in pursuit of an ambitious personal goal, at times they may become difficult to work with since they are born perfectionists. They are often successful financially, and are good providers for their family and those they cherish most dearly.

Tiger Personality Traits

Tiger is one of the most dynamic signs in the Chinese zodiac. People of this zodiac sign are by turns fascinating, commanding, and exasperating. They are patient but short-tempered, calm but rebellious, petty but noble, fearsome but affectionate, free spirits but fiercely territorial.

Ox Personality Traits

People born in the Year of the Ox are the supremely self-assured, and as a result are noted for inspiring confidence in others. Generally thoughtful, they measure their words, and will speak clearly and concisely often when it matters most. But sometimes they can be bad tempered.

Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, usually in October in Chinese lunar calendar.

So, how does this festival come into being?

It all begins from a story: there were said to be ten suns in the sky, which scorched all crops and drove people into dire poverty. A hero named Hou Yi ascended to the top of the Kunlun Mountain and, directing his superhuman strength to full extent, drew his extraordinary bow and shot down the nine superfluous suns one after another. He also ordered the last sun to rise and set according to time. 

For this reason, he was respected and loved by the people and lots of people of ideals and integrity came to him to learn martial arts from him. A person named Peng Meng lurked in them.

One day when Hou Yi led his disciples to go hunting, Peng Meng, sword in hand, rushed into the inner chamber and forced Chang E to hand over the elixir. 

Aware that she was unable to defeat Peng Meng, Chang E made a prompt decision at that critical moment. She turned round to open her treasure box, took up the elixir and swallowed it in one gulp. 

As soon as she swallowed the elixir her body floated off the ground, dashed out of the window and flew towards the moon.