The Action-measure Complement
The action-measure complement (动量补语) indicates how many times an action has happened or will happen.
It can be used to construct sentences like: “I went to China once”, “I’ve watched this movie twice”.
Pay attention
A complement is a secondary part of a sentence. It is placed after a predicate expressed by a verb or adjective, and expresses the speaker's view of the chance of success.
The action-measure complement is always placed after the verb. It is expressed by a combination of a numeral and a verbal classifier.
Scheme
verb
action-measure complement
Examples
再说一次
Say it again
zài shuō yí cì
If there is an object denoting a person in the sentence, we use the following pattern:
Scheme
verb
(了/过)
object
action-measure complement
Pay attention
To form the past tense, we need to use the verb suffixes 了 
or 过 after the verb.
or 过 after the verb.Examples
我见过他两回
I saw him twice
wǒ jiànguò tā liǎng huí
If there is an object denoting a geographical location, the action-measure complement can come either before or after the verb.
Examples
他去过一次中国
He went to China once
tā qùguò yí cì zhōngguó
他去过中国一次
He went to China once
tā qùguò zhōngguó yí cì
If there is an object denoting abstract things or inanimate objects, it should be put after the action-measure complement.
Scheme
verb
(了/过)
action-measure complement
object
If the action-measure complement is used with a verb-object construction, its nominative part should be separated and placed after the complement.
Examples
我只吃过一顿饭
I only ate one meal
wǒ zhǐ chīguò yí dùn fàn
他喝了一口水
He took a sip of water
tā hē le yì kǒu shuǐ
Pay attention
We cannot use the particle 着 with the action-measure complement.
with the action-measure complement.