完 / 到 / 见 / 好【wán / dào / jiàn / hǎo】

完, 到, 见 and 好 go straight after a verb and say how the action ended. Like every result complement, they take 没 in the negative and 了 after the pair.

完 – finished

完 says the action has run to its end and nothing of it is left.

到 – reached

到 says the action reached its goal: you found what you were looking for, got what you wanted to buy, or reached a point. It often comes out as "manage to".

好 – done and ready

好 says the action is finished and the result is in order, ready for what comes next.

完 says only that the action is over. 好 says it is over and the result is as it should be.

见 – perceived

见 goes on 看, 听 and a few verbs of meeting, and says the eyes or ears actually caught something. 看 is "look", 看见 is "see". 看到 and 听到 mean nearly the same as 看见 and 听见.

Mistakes

• × 我吃饭完了 → 我吃完饭了
• × 我不看见他 → 我没看见他
• × 我看了，可是没看 → 我看了，可是没看见