negation of complex verbs

[iyavor]

Hi everyone.

My spoken Mandarin has gotten better in the month or so that I have been spending in China. One topic eludes me those- the negation of complex verbs. I mean verbs that take a -de- structure, like

ting-de-dong (understand)
zhao-de-dao (find)

My question is how to negate in the past- "I didn't understand" or "I didn't find"... this seems to be a problem. How would I do this?

As my Hanzi knowledge is still limited- can answers be in Pinyin please?

Xie Xie
Ilan

 

[xiaolijie]

Past negative of potential complement structures:

ting-de-dong (understand) >> mei-ting-dong
zhao-de-dao (find) >> mei-zhao-dao

 

[xiaoJ]

Present negative of potential complement structures:

ting-de-dong (understand) >> ting-bu-dong
zhao-de-dao (find) >> zhao-bu-dao

Just adding this, even though your English sentences were in the past.