Result complements: 住, 掉, 成, 好, 到
补语 / complements
Tone colorsā tone 1á tone 2ǎ tone 3à tone 4a neutral
A result complement says what happens as a result of an action. At level 3, learn these five:
- 住: fix, hold in place: 记住 (memorise), 站住 (stop dead), 抓住 (catch).
- 掉: loss, removal: 丢掉 (lose, throw away), 忘掉 (forget), 卖掉 (sell off).
- 成: transformation or success: 变成 (become), 翻译成 (translate into), 写成 (write as).
- 好: done properly, ready: 准备好, 收拾好.
- 到: reaching a goal: 找到, 买到, 看到.
Negate with 没: 我没找到护照。
Examples
请记住你的房间号。
Qǐng jìzhù nǐ de fángjiān hào.Please remember your room number.
我把机票丢掉了！
Wǒ bǎ jīpiào diūdiào le!I've lost my plane ticket!
司机把“西安”听成了“西湖”。
Sījī bǎ “Xīān” tīngchéng le “Xīhú”.The driver misheard "Xi'an" as "West Lake".
你买到回来的票了吗？
Nǐ mǎidào huílai de piào le ma?Did you manage to get a return ticket?
Common mistakes
✗ 我不找到护照。 → negate results with 没. ✓ 我没找到护照。
✗ 我找了护照 ≠ 我找到了护照: the first only says you looked, not that you found it!