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Use of 得 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5833 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 1 of 20 22 December 2009 at 10:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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In my textbook both the following sentences appear.
你看完了吗? Have you read(it)? 你看得完吗? Are you able to finish reading it? (?) But there is no proper explanation of how they differ in meaning nor why 得 is used in the second one. Could someone help me out? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6910 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 20 23 December 2009 at 12:49am | IP Logged | ||
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看完 is the main verb, or compound if you want - see+finish. Chinese tenses are sometimes a bit tricky, but let's just say that 了 implies a past tense here, while 得 is used a potential complement in the second sentence.
Pattern: verb (看)+complement (得)+result(完) (the verb is negated by 不: 看不完 - 'not able to finish reading') Other verb compounds: 买得起/买不起 - afford/can't afford 看得懂/看不懂 - understand by reading/not understand... 听得懂/听不懂 - understand (by listening)/not understand 吃得完/吃不完 - finish eating/not finish... 来得及/来不及 - able to do something in time/not able... http://www.ctcfl.ox.ac.uk/Grammar%20exercises/PVC.htm http://mandarin.about.com/od/grammar/a/pot_complement.htm http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1562325 Confusing? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| YoshiYoshi Senior Member China Joined 5532 days ago 143 posts - 205 votes Speaks: Mandarin* | Message 3 of 20 23 December 2009 at 4:04am | IP Logged | ||
你看完了吗? Have you finished reading it? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5833 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 4 of 20 23 December 2009 at 2:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the links Jeff but I'm still not clear in the difference in meaning. If 你看完了吗? means 'Have you finished reading it?' (thanks Yoshiyoshi) is the second sentence asking about my ability to read it?
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| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5833 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 5 of 20 23 December 2009 at 4:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just foundthis example on the of the links:
报纸我看得完｡ Could you also express this sentence without 得 and would there be any difference in meaning? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6910 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 20 23 December 2009 at 6:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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To me, your last example sentences sounds incomplete in some way. 看完 is he basic verb - to finish reading. Either 得 or 不 has to be put in between, unless you want to imply a past tense (or change of state) 看完+了.
Why 你看得完吗? asks about your ability to read the book is because that's what it means. Apart from 你 and 吗, what you have is the complement verb 看得完 (to finish reading). Now, the somewhat literal translation could probably be "Are you 'finishing reading' it? (=reading it to the end) but I'd say that "Are/will you be able to finish reading it?" is an equally good translation. The other example verbs that I included follow the same pattern. 吃完 - to finish eating (你吃完吗? - I can't say that this doesn't work, but it isn't what I have learned.) 你吃得完吗? - Are you finishing eating (it)/Can you finish eating (it)/Are you able to finish eating (it)? 我吃得完。 - Yes, I am/I can/I'm able to. 我吃不完。 - No, I'm not/I can't/I'm not able to. 你吃了吗? - Have you eaten? 你吃完了吗? - Have you finished eating? 吃了，吃完就走。 - Yes, I finished eating and then left. Does your textbook have anything to say about the grammar constructions? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5833 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 7 of 20 23 December 2009 at 9:12pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm not sure which example you are referring to. So what you're saying is this sentence isn't correct: 你看完了吗? It should say 你看得完了吗? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6910 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 20 23 December 2009 at 11:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Your last example: 报纸我看(得)完｡ where you asked about the importance of 得.
Without it (->报纸我看完) I think it sounds incomplete, but native speakers may have another opinion. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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