Chinese grammar 语法: Using objects with complements

Using complements is one of the cool features of Chinese. Since they may be entirely new for Chinese learners, using them can be confusing.

Basic Patterns

The grammar for using an object with a complement is a little bit tricky. There are three different ways to arrange this sentence.

The first puts the object before everything else (Topic-comment sentences):
object+subject+verb+得/不+[complement]

The second structure is to to insert the object right after the subject, followed by everything else:
subject+object+verb+得/不+[complement]

And the third is to repeat the verb after the object, and follow it with the complement:
subject+verb+object+verb again +得/不+[complement]

This can seem very complicated at first. You only need to know about all three structures for listening comprehension, and can just use one when speaking. Also, the complement itself is the same in all three structures, so this is the part to listen out for.

Examples

Zhōnɡ wén tā shuō dé hěn hǎo.
中文 他 说 得 很 好。
Tā zhōnɡ wén shuō dé hěn hǎo.
他 中文 说 得 很 好。
Tā shuō zhōnɡ wén shuō dé hěn hǎo.
他 说 中文 说 得 很 好。

All of these sentences mean "He speaks Chinese very well."