Halfway the lesson there is the sentence
因为买不到票，所以去不了北京。
I had been hoping for that contrast, but sadly there was no explanation. So, maybe someone can explain: why 买不到 "unable to buy" (also a potential complement, right?) and 去不了? Can I say 买不了票? I thought maybe it's something to do with the presence of an object, but we can say 上不了网 so that can't be it. These complements are a bit difficult because you have to know what the complement is in general: 买不到 "can't buy"，睡不着 "can't sleep", 抬不起 "can't lift", etc. A catch all would be useful :) 买不了, 睡不了, 抬不了, … but that's probably too good to be true eh? So when can I use 得了/不了 as a complement and when do I have to use a more "specific" one?
Posted on: The Complement 不了
January 2, 2015 at 2:23 PMHalfway the lesson there is the sentence 因为买不到票，所以去不了北京。 I had been hoping for that contrast, but sadly there was no explanation. So, maybe someone can explain: why 买不到 "unable to buy" (also a potential complement, right?) and 去不了? Can I say 买不了票? I thought maybe it's something to do with the presence of an object, but we can say 上不了网 so that can't be it. These complements are a bit difficult because you have to know what the complement is in general: 买不到 "can't buy"，睡不着 "can't sleep", 抬不起 "can't lift", etc. A catch all would be useful :) 买不了, 睡不了, 抬不了, … but that's probably too good to be true eh? So when can I use 得了/不了 as a complement and when do I have to use a more "specific" one?