13 action verbs
Action verbs are verbs that describe doing things. They include 买/買 mǎi ‘shop,’ 学/學 xué
‘study,’ 看 kàn ‘look at,’ ‘watch,’ ‘read,’ 吃 chī ‘eat,’ 睡 shuì ‘sleep,’ 去 qù ‘go,’ 唱 chàng
‘sing,’ 洗 xǐ ‘wash,’ etc.
This chapter shows you how to talk about completed, past, and ongoing actions, and introduces
the overall properties of action verbs. There are two kinds of action verbs, those that describe
open-ended actions, and those that describe actions that cause a change. The last two sections
of this chapter present the characteristics of these two types of verbs.
13.1 Indicating that an action is complete
To indicate that an action is complete – that is, that it is viewed as a bounded event – follow
the action verb or the verb + object with the perfective particle 了 le.
The location of 了 le, either after the action or after the verb + object phrase, depends upon
properties of the object.
If the object consists of a noun phrase without any modification, that is, without a preceding
specific, number, classifier, or description phrase, 了 le typically follows the object.
她买东西了。
她買東西了。
Tā mǎi dōngxi le.
She bought things.
她到图书馆去了。
她到圖書館去了。
Tā dào túshūguǎn qù le.
She went to the library.
If the object includes a description, including a specifier, a number + classifier, a question word
involving quantity, or any other description, 了 le occurs directly after the verb.
我看了那个电影。
我看了那個電影。
Wǒ kàn le nàge diànyǐng.
I saw that movie.
他吃了两碗饭。
他吃了兩碗飯。
Tā chī le liǎng wǎn fàn.
He ate two bowls of rice.
