I know that the second part of the character is used to form a result complement, but I don't know how to understand the meaning fully.
If 看 means "to look" and 看见 means "to see(saw)", what does 看到 mean? Same goes for the 听 "to listen" compound.
And what about the meaning of the other result complements with: 住, 对, 错 etc. How is the meaning there determined?
I am such a beginner with this language and I know that complements shouldn't be among the first things I learn, but not being able to form the sentences I want to form, really bothers me... -_-
Thank you for the healp in advance! :)
I think for the most part, 看到=看见 and can be used interchangeably.
看住:to watch over someone or something and not let them get away; for instance: 在警察来之前,看住那个小偷!
看好:similar to 看住 (but less harsh), means to watch over and take care; for instance: 我去去就来,请帮我看好孩子。
看错:this depends on the context. You can use it in a sentence to express regret or disappointment in trusting someone: 我看错人了。(meaning I made the wrong choice to have chosen/trusted you)
Hope this helped!
Hi there!
Generally, 看见 can be interchangeably used with 看到. This is the case for 听见 and 听到 too.
看错 can be either be used to:
1. express disappointment at judging someone/something wrongly; or
2. used when you have probably seen something wrongly, like say for instance, you thought you've seen Peter at the library earlier but that wasn't Peter that you have seen.
看对, on the other hand, seems a little unnatural to me.
To me, 到 tends to imply a result after some degree of effort (after all, the character on its own literally means "arrive").
For example, you're observing a large crowd, trying to find your friend who's calling to you. When you spot him, it's more natural to say 看到了!than 看见了!The same goes for 听到了, which you might say after hearing someone explain something, whereas 听见了 could simply refer to a loud noise.
I won't go into the other resultative complements (对,错,etc.) as it's too big s topic to go into here.
(Disclaimer: I am not a Chinese native speaker)
Thank you all for the explenations!
谢谢,你们!
Also, I haven't made myself clear. What are the meanings of the other complements(对, 错 etc) how are they used with other verbs?