数量补语 shùliàng bǔyǔ — Quantity Complement 1
When you want to say how many times you’ve done something, Chinese adds a little word right after the verb — a quantity complement. This part covers 次 cì and 遍 biàn, the two most common ones.
This is the first of three parts on 数量补语 shùliàng bǔyǔ — words that tell you how many times, how much more, or how long. Here we start with the most basic use: counting how many times an action happens.
1 V + Quantity Complement
Put a number + 次 cì or 遍 biàn right after the verb to say how many times you did it.
次 cì just counts how many times something happened — it works with almost any verb. 遍 biàn is more specific: it counts how many times you did something start-to-finish, all the way through — so it shows up most with verbs like 看 kàn (read/watch), 听 tīng (listen), 说 shuō (say), and 写 xiě (write).
For a deeper breakdown of all the different words that translate as “times” in English, see: Words for “times” in Chinese →
2 Where the Object Goes
Once there’s an object in the sentence, the word order isn’t really about whether the object is a person, a place, or a thing — it’s about what kind of 动量词 dòngliàngcí you’re using.
1. Counting Words (次 cì, 遍 biàn) — Flexible Word Order
次 cì and 遍 biàn just count how many times the action happened — they don’t really “belong” to the object. So they can go either before or after it, whatever the object is.
One exception: when the object is a pronoun like 他 tā, it stays right after the verb and before the counting word — you wouldn’t say 找了两次他.
In spoken Chinese, you’ll also hear the object moved all the way to the front as the topic: O, V + measure word. It’s more casual and puts the focus on the thing you’re talking about.
2. Borrowed Action Words (口 kǒu, 杯 bēi, 块 kuài…) — Always Right After the Verb
Words like 口 kǒu (a mouthful), 杯 bēi (a cupful), and 块 kuài (a chunk/piece) are borrowed from nouns and describe the action itself — a sip, a cupful, a bite-sized piece. Because they’re so tied to the verb, they always stay glued to it: V + measure word + O, never the other way around.
3. Common Mistake
Because 次 cì and 遍 biàn can go after the object, learners often assume 口 kǒu, 杯 bēi, and 块 kuài work the same way. They don’t — borrowed action words like these can never be pushed past the object to the end of the sentence.
Counting words like 次 cì and 遍 biàn don’t have this restriction — that’s why 读了这本书三遍 is perfectly fine, even though the object sits between the verb and the counting word.
3 Practice
Translate each sentence into Chinese, then tap the card to check your answer.
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