结果补语
jié guǒ bǔ yǔ
Result complements
Chinese pins a second element onto the verb to say how the action turned out — done, finished, wrong, successful.
Verb + 好 / 完 / 错 / 到
How it works
我们吃好了 (we've finished eating), 我写错了 (I wrote it wrong), 我找到了 (I found it). The verb says what you did; the complement says whether it worked.
This is why 我看 and 我看到 differ: the first is looking, the second is actually seeing. A great many English verbs correspond to a Chinese verb-plus-complement pair.
Negate with 没: 我没找到. 不 only appears in the potential form (找不到).
Examples
wǒ men chī hǎo le
我们吃好了。
We've finished eating.
wǒ xiě cuò le
我写错了。
I wrote it wrong.
wǒ méi zhǎo dào wǒ de shǒu jī
我没找到我的手机。
I couldn't find my phone.