Asked • 04/01/19

How to say "Catch a plane"?

I'm interested to see if there is a translation for "catch a plane". I know that 赶不上飞机 is an expression - but could you say "今天我有很多事。 最要紧的是赶上飞机“

Fiona F.

Yes, you can say "今天我有很多事。 最要紧的是赶上飞机“ , which means" I have a lot of things today. The most important thing is to catch the plane" The grammer is called potential complement: Verbs can take potential complements to indicate whether or not an action is possible. Potential complements contain a 得 (de) or a 不 (bu) immediate after the verb being modified, and are quite common in everyday spoken Mandarin. For example: 你 没 戴 眼镜 ，看 得 清楚 吗 ？ Nǐ méi dài yǎnjìng, kàn de qīngchu ma? You didn't wear glasses. Can you see clearly? 这里 太 暗 了 ，我 看 不 清楚 。 Zhèlǐ tài àn le, wǒ kàn bu qīngchu. It's too dim here. I can't see clearly.
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10/18/20

Fiona F.

Yes, you can say "今天我有很多事。 最要紧的是赶上飞机“, which means" I have a lot of things today. The most important thing is to catch the plane" The grammar is called potential complement: Verbs can take potential complements to indicate whether or not an action is possible. Potential complements contain a 得 (de) or a 不 (bu) immediately after the verb being modified and are quite common in everyday spoken Mandarin. For example 你 没 戴 眼镜 ，看 得 清楚 吗 ？ Nǐ méi dài yǎnjìng, kàn de qīngchu ma? You didn't wear glasses. Can you see it clearly? 这里 太 暗 了 ，我 看 不 清楚。 Zhèlǐ tài àn le, wǒ kàn bu qīngchu. It's too dim here. I can't see clearly.
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10/18/20

2 Answers By Expert Tutors

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Rachel C. answered • 04/02/19

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你好！


You can use "赶飞机" as a translation for "to catch a plane/flight". "上" is here attached to the verb "赶" to indicate the result of the verb. You can see more examples in different situations below:


1) 赶得上 vs 赶不上

There is enough of time. I can totally catch the flight. 时间多得是，我肯定赶得上飞机。

It's 11 now. I am sure I can't make it to that 12:00 flight. 现在都11点了，我肯定赶不上11点半的飞机。

see more about potential complement:

https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Potential_complement


2) 没赶上 vs 赶上了

We just caught the plane. 我们刚好赶上了飞机。

In the end, I didn't catch the flight due to the traffic jam. 最后由于路上堵车，我没赶上飞机。

see more about resultative complement:

https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Result_complement


Hope it will answer your question!

Rachel Laoshi

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