This is a basic feature of Chinese grammar. Here two or more verbs are concatenated together. In this feature, also known as verb stacking, serial verb construction typically manifests itself in two ways: verbal complements, which appear after the main verb, and coverbs, which appear before the main verb.
Verbal Complements
The active verb of a sentence is essentially suffixed with a second verb. This indicates the result of the first action, or the direction in which it took the subject.
Complement of Result
A complement of result comes in two types: one indicates an absolute outcome, and the other a possible or likely outcome.
For example, the verb tīng, ("to listen") will serve as the active verb, and dǒng, "to understand", ("to know") will serve as the complement of result.
- Ting dong
To understand (something you hear) - Mei ting dong
To have not understood (something you hear)
Negative absolute complement of result
The existence of the absolute complement of result forces the active verb into the perfective aspect. - Tinh de dong
To be able to understand (something you hear)
Positive possible complement of result
This form is equivalent in meaning to 能听懂 [能聽懂]néng tīng dǒng
able to (because of the situation, not skill) understand something - Ta ba pan zi do po le
He hit/dropped the plate, and it broke. - Zhei bu dial ying wok an bu dong
I can't understand this movie (even though I watched it.)