On noun+verb -compounds

[aristotle1990]

What if you leave the object out of the original sentence， like this:

你找的怎么样？(How's your searching)

Is this plausible or common?

Yes -- in context this is perfectly acceptable. (Assuming you mean 你找得怎么样, of course. 你找的怎么样, if you're using the meaning of 的, means something like "how is what you're looking for", i.e., 你找的东西怎么样.)

And if in the last sentence you replace the 的 with 得...

你找得怎么样？

...the meaning is same (How's your searching) but grammatically it's different from the 的-version?

的 is a mistake. The word in all of these sentences should be 得; when writing, however, Chinese people will often write 的 instead of 得. They are using 的 to stand in for 得, not to indicate something different. 你找的怎么样 is the same as 你找得怎么样.

[anonymoose]

你找的怎么样？(How's your searching)

Is this plausible or common?

No, except for when people substitute 的 for 得.

Ok, to sum it up a bit I understand so far that you can use the phrase

'找工作' to mean 'job seeking'

but you can't use it in a sentence like this:

*你 找工作 怎么样？ (Imron's first reply)

The proper way to ask the question: "How's your job seeking?" is this:

你工作找得怎么样？

得 should always follow directly after the verb.

In situations where the verb has an object, the object should also follow after the verb.

So what happens when the verb has an object and you also want to use 得?

One way to deal with this is repeat the verb:

你找工作找得怎么样？

The other way is to do away with the object altogether, and recast it as the topic of the sentence:

你工作找得怎么样？ (Here, 工作 can be understood to be the topic of the ensuing phrase.)

[creamyhorror]

你找工作找得怎么样？ is the most complete form. 你工作找得怎么样？ is fine too.

你找的怎么样？ <-- I don't quite like this (for reasons given by aristotle1990).

你找得怎么样？ <-- This is fine, if the subject (找工作) has already been brought up in the conversation.

To be honest, I don't really have a problem with 你找工作怎么样了？ as a casual expression. Don't know if it's right, though.

[youreallygotme]

你找的怎么样, if you're using the meaning of 的, means something like "how is what you're looking for", i.e., 你找的东西怎么样.)

Yep, this is exactly what I intended with 你找的怎么样. "How is the thing that you are looking for" 你找的东西怎么样 in it's complete form as you wrote. It's not exactly the same as "how's the search" but somewhat close.

So in this sense this sentence is meaningful and grammatically correct.

I think my SRS is full of sentences like these and they all have 的

Just now came across this:

牙医看的怎么样？

The intended meaning is: "How was the dentist?"

But with 的 it really means: "How was the thing that the dentist checked?"

Correct?

[skylee]

牙医看的怎么样？ means how was the dental checking (was it painful, all right, what did the dentist say, etc)?

Please note that it should really be 得, not 的. Stick to this (just treat 的 as a variant) until you are sure you are familar with this pattern. Otherwise you will find it confusing (I certainly find your questions confusing).

[youreallygotme]

Heheh, sorry for being confusing.

Let me try more literal translations:

牙医看得怎么样？

Dentist look TO-THE-DEGREE-OF how like?

How was the dentist.

牙医看的（东西）怎么样？

Dentist look-ED (thing) how like?

How was the thing that the dentist looked?

[anonymoose]

In my opinion (as a non-native speaker of Chinese), 牙医看的怎么样？ is an unlikely sentence. Since 的 and 得 are pronounced similarly, I suspect anyone hearing this sentence would interpret it as 牙医看得怎么样？.

I think if one wanted really to express the meaning 牙医看的怎么样？, one would most likely say 牙医看的东西怎么样？, or in more formal language, 牙医所看的怎么样？.

[aristotle1990]

Yep, this is exactly what I intended with 你找的怎么样. "How is the thing that you are looking for" 你找的东西怎么样 in it's complete form as you wrote. It's not exactly the same as "how's the search" but somewhat close.

There's a huge difference in meaning. 你找的（那个东西）怎么样, which doesn't really make too much sense to me, is a question about the status of the object the other person is looking for, not the results of the search. If you were playing hide and seek, for example, the answer to 你找得怎么样了 might be "haven't found it yet", but the answer to 你找的东西怎么样 would probably be something like, "oh, I haven't found it yet, but I'm sure it's in fine shape." As anonymoose says, this is an unlikely sentence with an unusual meaning and you should really just forget about it. If you say "ni zhao de zenmeyang" to any literate Chinese person and ask him or her to write down the correct 汉字, inevitably you will get 你找得怎么样.