the “Separable Verbs” is like "Verb+Noun" but the “unseparable verbs” is like "Verb+Verb" or just one Verb For example, 吃饭: 吃 means eat and 饭 means meal, so we can say：吃了一顿饭。 见面：见 means to see，面 means face，我们见过一面。 otherwise, 喜欢，the two character all means to like, so we cannot seperate 喜欢 The list of such verb would very long, such as 吃饭、睡觉、结婚、游泳、打球、上班、开车、上课……

Or, I can tell u this: When chinese people started to speak chinese (long long long long ago), there was NO verb like "见面"、“睡觉”. There were ONLY "见"、“睡” etc. People said a lot phrases like: 我睡了一觉. 我见了他一面 etc. With the time passed, people started to omit something, and these phrases became like this: 我睡觉. 我见面.......Then new verbs were created: 睡觉、见面. In other words, “觉” “面” were originally the objects of the verbs, but now we make them and the verbs together as new verbs. Ofc they are vi because they have already had their own object... OMG........ I hope you could understand what I am talking about... nice question :D

The rule is very simple but very hard :D It's very simple because the rule is: if the first character of the verb can be used alone as a verb, then the verb can be separated. Otherwise, the verb can't be separated. For example, 睡觉 is a verb, and 睡 can be used alone as a verb too. ---- 他正睡在我的床上。 见面 is a verb, and 见 can be used alone as a verb too. ---- 我想见你。 喜欢 is a verb, BUT 喜 can't be used alone as a verb. So 喜欢 can't be separated. So how could we know which verbs's first character can be used alone as a verb? Now this is the hard part. I use 睡觉 as an example: 睡 and 睡觉 are all verbs. Furthermore, they have very close relation: both of them mean: sleep. But they are not the same thing. 睡觉 = 睡 + 觉 (verb + noun) 睡 is a v.t., BUT 睡觉 is a v.i. (I hope u know the difference between vt and vi. vt can be followed by the object, vi can't) 见面 = 见 + 面 见 is vt, 见面 is vi. 我见(到) something. 见 is vt, something is the object. 我和你见面。见面 is vi, there is NO object. 我睡了一个女人。 睡 is vt, 一个女人 is the object. 我在床上睡觉。 睡觉 is vi, there is NO object. In fact, what I am saying is NOT exactly correct. As u see, we must add “到” after “见” to make it as a vt. Ur question is very good. Because it touched the essence of chinese language. There is only one method to answer ur question: to speak chinese as a mother language..... lol...

2-1 Hi, rigel. First I'll give a A LIST OF SEPARABLE WORDS OF MORDERN CHINESE 现代汉语离合词表 and two dictionaries: A DICTIONARY OF THE USAGE OF COMMON CHINESE SEPARABLE WORDS 汉语常用离合词用法词典 (268) and 现代汉语离合词用法词典（A LEARNER'S DICTIONARY OF THE SEPARABLE WORDS OF MODERN CHINESE, larger and maybe better). (http://www.docin.com/p-848286609.html , you may manually copy the words one by one and this will help a lot with your learning) Separable words/ splitwords/ detachable words 离合词 are among the central problems which are still open to Chinese researchers. There have been lots of results achieved while some essential issues still remain unresolved. To make it simple for people like you who're learning Chinese as a foreign language, I'd like to thus explain separable words( SW): Most of the SWs are composed in the Verb + Noun pattern. eg 理发 散步 鞠躬 毕业 吃饭. So it'll be greatly helpful if you know the etymology of every Chinese word (or words in the above list). The component VERB and NOUN of an SW respectively are or were separablly used (in modern and fewly only in ancient Chinese) with the same meaning as in the SW. So 理发 -- 理个发， 理过发，理了三次发， 理着发，理理发 散步 -- 散个步，散过步，散了半个钟头的步，散散步 鞠躬 -- 鞠个躬，鞠过躬，鞠了三个躬 毕业-- 毕了业 吃饭 -- 吃个饭，吃了饭，吃过饭，吃着饭，吃了三次饭，吃了半个钟头的饭，饭吃过以后 (you may find that the usage of SWs are not all the same in each other, the reason lies in the meaning of the very verb and noun, or, occasionally in the convention of using them).

2-2 But verbs in other composing pattern mostly cannot be used component-separablly. 选择 -- × 选个择 选了择 选过择 选选择 研究 -- × .......................................... 帮助 -- × .......................................... 热爱 朗读 空投 × ..................................... 推动 扩大 改善 × ...................................... （but please note that some Verb-complement can be used in the AAB pattern) Besides those in the Verb-Noun pattern, some words in the pattern of Verb-complement and Verb-direction/tendency are also separable words: 碰见 达到 起来 指出 The trouble for foreigners to learn separable words is that we cannot give a simple and plain rule that would definitely tell if a verb is an SW and what the exact usage is for a very SW. The answer is in the trial and error -- use it and err and correct ;)