Resultative Complements
liangaorong
October 07, 2011, 01:36 PM posted in I Have a Question大家好，
I've just started Chinese this year and am a little confused about the following;
我找到一个好老师。
vs...
我找了一个好老师。
What is the difference in meaning happening here?
Similarly...
早上我看见李老师了 vs 早上我看了李老师。
Thanks very much!
liangaorong
October 09, 2011, 01:55 AMAh okay, thanks a bunch John.
I thought this might be the case...however, what would be the difference in translation between
早上我看见李老师了 and 早上我看了李老师。
Are they both
"I saw Teacher Li this morning."
Cheers
liangaorong
October 09, 2011, 01:55 AMAh okay, thanks a bunch John.
I thought this might be the case...however, what would be the difference in translation between
早上我看见李老师了 and 早上我看了李老师。
Are they both
"I saw Teacher Li this morning."
Cheers
John
October 08, 2011, 02:57 AMIn the examples you gave, the characters 到 and 见 are serving the role of "resultative complement." They're telling us that not only was some action performed, but there was also a result. The following verbs, with and without the resultative complements, should help make this clearer.
找 - to search for
找到 - to find
看 - to look (at)
看到 - to see
看见 - to see
听 - to listen (to)
听到 - to hear
听见 - to hear
The resultative complement 到 is more widely used; 见 is mainly just for verbs related to the 5 senses, with 看见 and 听见 being the main ones.
I hope that clears things up for you!