V完 — A verb clipped to 完 says the action was carried right through to its end, nothing of it left to do.

grammar → V完

TSUMUGU · TBCL 3 (est.) · 語法

V完 grammar point · tier 1 · completive complement V完 (finished doing it through)

ㄨㄢˊ · wán

A verb clipped to 完 says the action was carried right through to its end, nothing of it left to do.

Hook inherited from 結果補語.

A verb clipped to 完 says the action was carried right through to its end, nothing of it left to do.

框 · Frame

[subj] [verb] 完 ([obj])

觸 · Trigger

You want to say the action did not merely happen but was taken right through to completion.

序 · The move

1name the act with a verb that can reach an end (buy, eat, read, write)can this act run out, or does it just go on?

2clip 完 directly onto the back of the verbis 完 fused to the verb, not floating at the end of the clause?

3put any object after 完, and 了 after that if you mark realizationdoes the order read verb + 完 + object, not verb + object + 完?

例 · Examples

1他剛just now去市場買buy完through to the finish菜vegetables, groceries。

He just went to the market and finished buying the groceries.

界 · Boundary

結果補語

結果補語 fuses any outcome to the verb (看懂 = read-and-understood). V完 is the one outcome that is exhaustion: the act ran out, nothing of it remains. 完 names finishing-through, not just some result.

了1

了1 says the act was realized and bounded (我吃了 = I ate). V完 says the act was carried to its end (我吃完 = I ate it all up, finished). One reports the act happened; the other reports it reached completion.

了2

了2 at the clause-end announces a new state now holds (it's gotten cold). V完 sits on the verb and reports the act run to its finish. One marks a changed situation, the other a completed action.

putting the object before 完: ✗ 他買菜完 → 他買完菜

using 完 on an act that cannot run out: ✗ 我喜歡完他 → 我喜歡他 (a state, not a finishable act)

reading 完 as past tense rather than completion: ✗ 昨天我看完 (as 'I read it yesterday') → 我看完了 (I finished reading it)

English speakers reach for 完 to translate the past tense of any verb. 完 is not tense; it reports an act taken all the way through to its end, and only on verbs that can finish.