Level 5 · Lesson 5

我看见他了
I saw him

我看见他了，也听见他的声音了。

见 attaches to a verb of perception to say that the looking or listening actually succeeded.

听 · Listen

门外有声音
 安娜 —  李明，你听见了吗？ 
Li Ming, did you hear that?  
 李明 —  听见什么？我没听见。 
Hear what? I didn't hear anything.  
 安娜 —  门外有声音。 
There's a sound outside the door.  
 李明 —  你看见人了吗？ 
Did you see anyone?  
 安娜 —  我看了看，没看见人。 
I had a look, but I didn't see anyone.  
 李明 —  是不是你的邻居？昨天我在路上遇见他了。 
Is it your neighbour? I ran into him on the road yesterday.  
 安娜 —  我又听见了。我看见他了！ 
I hear it again. I can see him!  
 李明 —  是他。他在门外等你呢。 
It is him. He's waiting for you outside the door.  

讲解 · Explanation

我看了，没看见。

看 and 看见 are two different things. 看 is the trying — you turned your eyes that way. 看见 is the succeeding — the thing actually landed in your eyes. English hides this in 'look' versus 'see'; Chinese builds it out of two characters, and 见 is the piece that means it worked. The same 见 rides on 听: 听 is listening, 听见 is hearing. This little tail on the verb is called a result complement, and this level is full of them.

我没看见他。我看见他了。

A result either happened or it did not, so the negative is always 没, never 不: 没看见, 没听见, 没遇见. 不看见 does not exist. In the positive, 看见 acts as one single verb, so 了 goes after the whole thing and not into the middle — 我看见他了, never 我看了见他. And this 了 is not a past tense: 明天你就看见他了 'you'll see him tomorrow' uses exactly the same shape.

昨天我在路上遇见他了。

遇见 is the third member of the family: to meet someone by chance, to run into them. Compare it with 见面 from last level — 见面 is an arranged meeting and takes 跟 (我跟他见面), while 遇见 is an accident and takes its person straight as an object (我遇见他). Do not mix the two patterns.

生词 · Vocabulary

词	Meaning	注 · Note
见	to see; (as result) successfully	the result tail on 看, 听, 遇
看见	to see, to catch sight of	看 is looking, 看见 is seeing
听见	to hear	听 is listening, 听见 is hearing
遇见	to run into, to come across	takes an object: 遇见他
声音	sound, voice	一个声音; 听见声音

练习 · Practice

我看了…… Which one means 'I looked, but I didn't see him'?

我 ______ 听见你的声音。 Which negator fits: 'I didn't hear your voice'?

昨天我在路上 ______ 王老师了。 Fill in the verb for running into someone by chance.

排一排。 Arrange the words: 'I've seen him.'

见、看见、听见、遇见、声音 Match each word to its meaning.

用一用 · Use it

现在你看见什么？你听见什么？

Look up and name three things aloud: 我看见一张桌子 (wǒ kànjiàn yì zhāng zhuōzi), 我看见一本书, 我看见门外的花. Then close your eyes and name two sounds: 我听见车的声音 (wǒ tīngjiàn chē de shēngyīn), 我听见一个人说话. Finish with one thing you looked for and failed to find, using 没: 我看了，没看见我的手机.