Many mistakes are often made when it comes to the potential complement in Chinese, which is related to both teachers and students. Therefore, some useful suggestions as follows will be introduced in teaching the potential complement. First of all, the teachers who teach Mandarin Chinese need to explain the meaning of the potential complement exactly. At present, many teaching materials and also teachers focus on introducing the forms and structures of the potential complements while the introduction on the meaning and application is not so detailed and systematically.
Most teachers say that the potential complement is applied to indicate the possibility of something which is not wrong. However, as a matter of fact, there are many exercises in Chinese teaching materials such as changing the sentence with 能like 你能洗干净这块地毯吗into the positive complement like 你洗得干净这块地毯吗 or the contrary. When meeting such kind of exercise, in order to solve energy, some teachers often tell the students that the potential complement is to indicate 能or 不能.
In this way, the explanation and the exercise will give the students a kind of illusion that the application of the potential complement is the same as that of 能. As well know, language also has economical efficiency, which is to say, there is no redundant words or structures in language. If certain words and structures can be replaced by another word or structure, they will lose the value of existence. We also know that the potential complement has existed in Chinese language for a long time, which indicates that the application of it will be not the same as 能.
The second point is that the teachers need to arrange the teaching contents reasonably. At the beginning level that the students learn Chinese language, teachers can teach them the basic pattern of the potential complement. After they master it, it is time to teach them the positive form of it. When it comes to the intermediate or advanced level, teachers can teach the potential complement 了and得.
At the same time of teaching the potential complements mentioned above, teachers should also teach some potential complements of the idiomatic expression type. Such types of complements are usually frequently seen in oral Chinese no matter the positive form or negative form.