▎成, chéng, (Ptc), as Verb Complement, to become, to turn into (1)

 

Function The post-verbal 成 introduces a noun that denotes the new entity (or state) that derives from the action denoted by the verb, i.e. action＋result. English translations can be difficult in some cases.

1 你看！你把餃子包成什麼樣子了？

Nǐ kàn! Nǐ bǎ jiǎozi bāochéng shénme yàngzi le?

Look at you! What kind of dumplings are you making?

2 我看不懂西班牙文。你能不能幫我把這段話翻譯成中文？

Wǒ kànbùdǒng Xībānyáwén. Nǐ néng bù néng bāng wǒ bǎ zhè duàn huà fānyìchéng Zhōngwén?

I don’t understand Spanish. Can you translate this section into Chinese for me?

3 你在我房間裡做了什麼事？怎麼把我的房間弄成這樣？

Nǐ zài wǒ fángjiān lǐ zuòle shénme shì? Zěnme bǎ wǒ de fángjiān nòngchéng zhèyàng?

What did you do in my room? How did it get so messed up?

4 她用蛋跟其他材料做成一個生日蛋糕，送給媽媽。

Tā yòng dàn gēn qítā cáiliào zuòchéng yí ge shēngrì dàngāo, sòng gěi māma.

She used eggs and some other ingredients and made them into a birthday cake for her mom.

5 這是用Word寫的。我幫你存成PDF，可以嗎？

Zhè shì yòng Word xiě de. Wǒ bāng nǐ cúnchéng PDF, kěyǐ ma?

This was written in Word. I saved it for you in a PDF file. Is that OK?

 

Usage

(1) V＋成 is typically followed by a noun. If the new state is denoted by a state verb, then 成 is not inserted between the action verb and the state verb. So ＊他把我的杯子弄成破了(＊Tā bǎ wǒ de bēizi nòngchéng pò le) is no good. Only 弄破nòngpò is possible.

(2) Negation 沒 is placed before the action verb. For example, 她的手機沒換成月租型。Tā de shǒujī méi huànchéng yuèzūxíng. ‘She didn’t change her cell phone package to a monthly plan.’