How To Master 29+ Chinese Separable Verbs

When you learn Chinese, you discover that a lot of Chinese grammar is relatively simple.

But some aspects are understandably quite different from English, even if they don’t present any significant challenges once you get your head round how they work.

One example is so-called Chinese separable verbs, an extremely common construction in Chinese.

So to help you understand what they are and how to use them, in this post, I look in detail at over 29 Chinese separable verbs.

Basic Chinese Sentence Structure

Many Chinese verbs work in the same way as in English – Chinese has the same basic subject-verb-object word order as English.

So when you want to say something like “I drink coffee”, the sentence is essentially the same in Chinese: 我喝咖啡 wŏ hē kāfēi.

In this example, 喝 hē (to drink) is a one-syllable verb, but other verbs can have more than one syllable. An example of this could be喜欢 xĭhuan (to like), so you can say something like 我喜欢狗 wŏ xĭhuan gŏu (I like dogs).

If you want to know more about this, check out my post on Chinese sentence structure.

What Are Chinese Separable Verbs?

There’s another type of verb in Chinese, though, that doesn’t have a direct equivalent in English, and that’s verbs with a built-in object.

For example, one of the very first you are likely to encounter when you start learning Chinese is 吃饭 chī fàn (to eat).

In this construction, the first character, 吃 chī alone means “to eat” while the second character, 饭 fàn, literally means “cooked rice”. 

However, you shouldn’t break the meaning down like this. Instead try to think of them as being two parts of a single verb, a type of verb known as a “separable verb”. 

The meaning of the two words together is simply “to eat” (with the implication being some kind of meal and not just a snack) rather than referring to eating actual cooked rice.

In English, you can usually just use the word “eat” without stating what you’re eating, but in Chinese, most of the time, this would sound incomplete. Instead, to make a more complete-sounding sentence, you need to say 吃饭 chī fàn.

Here’s how it works in a sentence:

• 我想吃饭 wŏ xiăng chī fàn (I want to eat.)  

This sentence doesn’t mean you want to eat cooked rice, it just means you want to eat something, with the implication being that you mean a meal.

(We’ll come to how to specify what you want to eat, including actual cooked rice, later in the post.)

29 Of The Most Common Chinese Separable Verbs

Here's a table of some of the most common separable verbs. However, there are lots of others, and you will gradually pick them up through practice, especially if you follow the rules of StoryLearning and read in Chinese.

How Are Chinese Separable Verbs Different From Other Verbs?

The important takeaway from what we’ve seen so far is that 饭 fàn should be seen as a component part of the verb 吃饭 chī fàn.

But how is this different from a “normal” verb”?

The answer is in the name because while the two characters in verbs like 喜欢 xĭhuan can’t be separated in a sentence, the two characters in Chinese separable verbs can (and sometimes must).

Incidentally, these verbs also have another equally logical name. Since they all consist of a verb and an object, they are, quite reasonably, also sometimes known as “verb-object constructions”.

Getting Your Head Around These Verbs

There’s nothing particularly challenging about Chinese separable verbs. But one thing that might confuse you is why you need the object at all.

As we’ve seen, with the example of 吃饭 chī fàn, in English, it seems that the second character is superfluous.

The same could be said of something like 说话 shuō huà, a separable verb meaning “to speak”.

Here, the first character means “speak” while the second can be translated as “words”, so literally, 说话 shuō huà means “speak words”.

However, if you’re getting mixed up like this, it means you’re probably not thinking about it in the right way.

Instead of breaking the phrase down, think of the two characters as belonging together as part of a single verb. When you see 说 shuō and 话 huà, they just mean “to speak” – and you don’t need to think about it any more than that.

With some other separable verbs, it’s perhaps a little easier to accept.

For example, 看书 kàn shū translated word-for-word means “look book”, but the actual meaning of this separable verb is “to read”.

Compare this with 看病 kàn bìng. This literally means “look illness” but really means “to see a doctor”. 

As you can see, here, the meaning changes completely depending on the second character. You just need to accept them as a whole with the meaning coming from the two characters together rather than what they might mean separately.

Finally, there are those like 睡觉 shuì jiào, meaning “to sleep”. This could be translated word-for-word as “sleep sleep”, something that would be nonsensical in English.

Here, the only option you have is just to accept them as belonging together – and not to lose any sleep over it!

Making Basic Sentences With Chinese Separable Verbs

Now you know what separable verbs are, it’s time to get into how to use them in sentences. And to talk a bit more about how they differ from other types of verbs.

Let’s start with some simple sentences.

• 别说话! bié shuō huà! (Don’t speak!)

• 我头疼，我要去看病 wŏ tóu téng, wŏ yào qù kàn bìng (I have a headache, I need to go and see a doctor).

• 你太累了。你应该去睡觉 nĭ tài lèi le. nĭ yīnggāi qù shuì jiao (You are too tired. You should go and sleep)

• 明天晚上几点要见面呢？ míngtiān wănshang jĭ diăn yào jiàn miàn ne? (Tomorrow evening, what time shall we meet?)

• 咱们怎么去呢？我开车去 zánmen zĕnme qù ne? wŏ kāi chē qù (How shall we get there? I’ll drive)

As you can see, in basic sentences like these, the verbs and the objects appear together. 

At this point, the important thing to note is that you need to use both parts of the separable verb because if you drop the object, at best, the sentence would feel incomplete. And at worst, it would change the meaning or even make the sentence meaningless.

For example, if you said something like *你几点要见？ *nĭ jĭ diăn yào jiàn? it would seem very odd – the person you were speaking to would likely be wondering who or what you wanted to see or meet.

Similarly, if you said *我开去 *wŏ kāi qù, it wouldn’t mean anything – 开车 kāi chē means “to drive” but 开 kāi alone means “start” or “open”, so without 车 chē, it just wouldn’t make any sense!

Chinese Separable Verbs With Particles

When you add Chinese particles such as着 zhe, and 过 guo to the sentence, the difference between separable verbs and other verbs becomes more obvious because the verb and the object need to be separated.

For example:

• 我知道他但是不认识他。我们还没见过面 wŏ zhīdào tā dànshi bú rènshi tā. wŏmen hái méi jiàn guo miàn. (I know who he is, but I don’t know him. We haven’t met yet.)

Compare with:

• 我没组织过我公司的年会 wŏ méi zŭzhī guo wŏ gōngsī de niánhùi (I’ve never organised my company’s annual meeting.)

Note that in the first sentence, 过 guo, the “past experience” marker, is placed between the two characters of the separable verb.

However, in the second example, 组织 zŭzhī (to organise) is not a separable verb, so the two characters stay together and 过 guo is placed after it.

The same applies to other particles such as 着 zhe, the “action in progress” or “ongoing state” particle – for example:

• 他开开心心地开着车 tā kāikāixìnxìn de kāi zhe chē (He is driving very happily.)

Separable Particles With 了 le

With the particle 了 le, things are slightly more complicated since 了 le has different uses, and this can affect where it appears in a sentence.

When 了le is used to express a completed action, it works the same way as the particles above, like this:

• 他应经吃了饭 tā yĭjīng chī le fàn (He’s already eaten.)

Here, we are expressing that he’s eaten and that the action is completed – so 了 le comes between the two parts of the separable verb.

However, when 了 le is used to express a new situation rather than a completed action, it comes at the end of the sentence. For example:

• 他已经睡觉了 tā yĭjīng shuì jiào le (He’s already gone to sleep.)

This sentence expresses the idea that the person has fallen asleep, that he is now sleeping whereas before he was awake – this is a “new situation”.

Unfortunately, the use of 了 le is a huge topic in itself, and I don’t have time to go into it in any further detail here.

However, the important thing to remember is that the position of 了 le in relation to separable verbs can vary according to how it's being used. And beyond this, learning more about 了 le and getting a feel for how it’s used will help you get it right!

As ever, the best way to get a feel for how 了 le is used is to apply the StoryLearning method and read stories in Chinese. So keep reading and don't let the grammar villain put you off!

Tip: Identifying Chinese Separable Verbs

In the past, knowing which verbs were separable and which were not could sometimes be difficult since the test is whether you can place 了 le or other particles between them, something that’s not always obvious unless you encounter them this way in a sentence.

However, nowadays it’s much easier – thanks to the popular dictionary app Pleco that practically every Chinese learner has on their phone.

This is because Pleco lists most separable verbs with a double dash between them, letting you know instantly that you are looking at a separable verb. For example, you will see entries like this:

开会 kāi//huì verb hold or attend a meeting

However, be aware that for some reason, a few are not listed like this – so you still need to be careful.

Changing The Object Of A Separable Verb

Another important feature of separable verbs is that often, it’s possible to replace the inherent object with something else – in which case, the original object is dropped. For example:

• 我很饿了。 我想吃火锅 wŏ hĕn è le. wŏ xiăng chī huŏguō. (I’m very hungry. I want to eat hotpot.)

• 别说英语! bié shuō yīngyŭ! (Don’t speak English!)

• 我明天晚上几点要见你? wŏ míngtiān wănshang jĭ diăn yào jiàn nĭ? (Tomorrow evening, what time shall I meet you?)

• 我不会画彩虹 wŏ bú huì huà căihóng (I don’t know how to draw rainbows.)

(画画儿 huà huàr is the separable verb “to draw/paint” – and word-for-word, it means “draw picture”)

In all of these sentences, because you are stating who or what you are eating, speaking, meeting or drawing, you drop the inherent object from the separable verb and replace it with the relevant new object.

Note that if you add a new object, you must drop the original object or the sentence will be incorrect – so for example. You can’t say things like:

*几点要见面你 *jĭ diăn jiàn miàn nĭ

*我不会画画彩虹 *wŏ bú huì huà huà căihóng

Incidentally, if you really want to say you want to eat “cooked rice” rather than just a meal of some kind, you use the word 米饭 mĭ fàn, like this:

• 我想吃米饭 wŏ xiăng chī mĭ fàn (I want to eat cooked rice.)

This is because, although 饭 fàn alone means “cooked rice”, when you want to talk about cooked rice in a sentence, for example, when ordering in a restaurant, you need to use the full form 米饭 mĭ fàn.

Sentences With 跟 gēn

We’ve just seen that it’s possible to replace the object of a separable verb with a different object.

However, another way to do something similar while keeping both parts of the separable verb is to make a construction with 跟 gēn, a word that can be translated as “with”.

• 我想跟你见面 wŏ xiăng gēn nĭ jiàn miàn (I want to meet you.)

This is an alternative way to express a sentence with a very similar meaning:

• 我想见你 wŏ xiăng jiàn nĭ (I want to meet you/see you.)

In other situations, using 跟 gēn simply tells you who you are doing the action with, like this:

• 我想跟你一起吃饭 wŏ xiăng gēn nĭ yìqĭ chī fàn (I want to eat (a meal) with you.)

Chinese Separable Verbs With Measure Words

Sometimes, you might want to add a Chinese measure word to a sentence, which you can do like this:

• 我要睡个好觉 wŏ yào shuì ge hăo jiao (I want to have a good sleep [literally, “I want to sleep a good sleep”])

• 你帮我一个忙，好吗？ nĭ bāng wŏ yí ge máng, hăo ma? (Give me a hand, ok?)

(帮忙 bāng máng is the separable verb meaning “to help”, and adding 一个 yí ge like this gives it the feeling of saying “help out, give a hand” etc.)

If you want to say how long you do something for, you can also make similar sentences, like this:

• 他睡了四个小时的觉 tā shuì le sì ge xiăoshí de jiào (He slept for four hours.)

• 我看了半天书 wŏ kàn le bàn tiān shū (I read for half a day.)

In the first example, notice that since we’re dealing with a completed action, the 了 le is placed between the two parts of the separable verb rather than at the end of the sentence as it was with the “new situation” example we saw earlier.

Also, the second example here has no measure word because 天 tiān doesn’t take one. But otherwise, the grammar is the same.

Dropping The Object Of A Separable Verb

Although we’ve seen that you normally need to keep the object to make the sentence feel complete, sometimes it can be dropped in casual speech or where the object is implied.

For example:

• 你在吃冰糖葫芦吗？我也想吃！ nĭ zài chī bīngtánghúlù ma? wŏ yĕ xiăng chī! (Are you eating bingtanghulu? I want to eat some too!)

Here, in casual speech, “bingtanghulu” is understood, so the speaker omits the word (bingtanghulu are sugar-coated haws on skewers. They’re a bit like mini toffee apples and are popular in Beijing and the rest of northern China).

You might also hear something like this:

• 咱们明天再聊吧 zánmen míngtiān zài liáo ba (Let’s chat again tomorrow.)

Again, this is casual speech, so the speaker drops the 天 tiān from 聊天 liáo tiān. This kind of thing can sometimes be ok, especially online. And the best way to learn what you can get away with is to pay attention to what native speakers say and then to copy them.

Reduplication Of The Verb

In Chinese, you can sometimes reduplicate verbs to give the idea of “doing a little bit of the action”. This also works with separable verbs by repeating the first character. Here are some examples:

• 我很喜欢跟朋友一起聊聊天 wŏ hĕn xĭhuan gēn péngyou yìqĭ liáoliao tiān (I really like chatting with friends.)

• 我想出去散散步 wŏ xiăng chū qù sànsan bù (I want to go out for a walk.)

• 我们去逛逛街吧！ wŏmen qù guàngguang jiē ba! (Let’s go and do a spot of window shopping!)

With the third example, the effect of the reduplication is the most obvious – I’ve translated it as “do a spot of” instead of simply “go window shopping”.

With the other two, the idea might not come across quite as clearly in the English translation, but it’s the same.

The first example implies the idea of casually chatting with friends for fun rather than just the simple, raw action. And in the second, the impression is of taking an idle stroll to relax rather than describing the simple act of going for a walk.

Note that with reduplication, the reduplicated verb drops its tone and becomes neutral.

Chinese Separable Verbs FAQ

An Important Part Of Chinese Grammar That's Not Too Difficult

Chinese separable verbs are an important part of Chinese grammar. And many of the simplest things you might want to say require separable verbs. So without them, you won’t be able to say very much at all.

However, fortunately, they’re relatively easy to understand, and the grammar related to them is easy to master. So with just a little practice, using them correctly and with confidence will soon become second nature.

And if you need a little help with Chinese separable verbs, my course, Chinese Uncovered can teach you them (and much more) thanks to stories, not rules. Click here for a free 7-day trial.

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.