Separable verbs

Separable verbs represent a small part of the Chinese verbs that, even though they may look like bisyllabic verbs, they actually are composed by a monosyllabic verb and an object. For this reason, unlike real bisyllabic verbs, they can be separated. Let’s see some examples.

见面 (jiànmiàn) – to see each other, to meet – made up by 见 (jiàn) “to see” and 面 (miàn) “face” that acts as the object, literally “to see the face”
我已经跟她见过面了。
wǒ yǐjīng gēn tā jiànguò miàn le
[I already with her to-see ASP face ASP]
I already met her.

过 (guò) and 了 (le) indicate the completed aspect of the verb (ASP), which will be explained in the near future.

睡觉 (shuìjiào) – to sleep – made up by 睡 (shuì) “to sleep” and 觉 (jiào) “sleep”, literally “to sleep a sleep”
你真的需要睡个好觉。
nǐ zhēn de xūyào shuì gè hǎo jiào
[you really ST to-need to-sleep QU good sleep]
You really need to take a good nap.

看书 (kànshū) – to read – made up by 看 (kàn) “to read, to see” and 书 (shū) “book”, literally “to read a book”
我还没看了你的书。
wǒ hái méi kànle nǐ de shū
[I yet not to-read ASP you ST book]
I haven’t read your book yet.

The verb 看 (kàn) can be used with other objects. For example, 看报 (kàn bào) “to read a newspaper”, 看电影 (kàn diànyǐng) “to watch a movie”, 看比赛 (kàn bǐsài) “to watch a match”.

帮忙 (bāngmáng) – to help, made up by 帮 (bāng) “to help” and 忙 (máng) which is actually also a verb meaning “to work”, literally “to help to work”
你帮了我很大的忙。
nǐ bāngle wǒ hěn dà de máng
[you to-help ASP I very big ST to-work]
You gave me a great help./You helped me a lot.

吃饭 (chīfàn) – to eat, made up by 吃 (chī) “to eat” and 饭 (fàn) abbreviation of 米饭 (mǐfàn) “rice” which indicate the “meal”, literally “to eat rice”
我吃了一个美味的饭。
wǒ chīle yīgè měiwèi de fàn
[I to-eat ASP one QU delicious ST meal]
I had a delicious meal.

生气 (shēngqì) – to get angry, made up by 生 (shēng) “to grow” and 气 (qì) “anger”, literally “to grow anger”
我不生你的气。
wǒ bù shēng nǐ de qì
[I not to-grow you ST anger]
I’m not angry with you.

Hence, all these verbs already have a direct object. Since, Chinese verbs usually cannot handle more than one object, it is not possible to add a second direct object after these kind of verbs. For example, it is not right to say 我已经见过面她了 (wǒ yǐjīng jiànguò miàn tā le). The verb 见 (jiàn) is already followed by the direct object 面 (miàn) therefore, it cannot handle 她 (tā) “her” as well. To solve this problem, it is necessary to change the word order and put 她 (tā) introduced by the preposition 跟 (gēn) “with”, before the verb.

Cover background picture by Krzysztof Kowalik (unsplash.com)