This paper conducts a comparative study on the resultative verb compounds (RVCs) in Cantonese and Mandarin with an aim to reveal and explain the rules governing the use of RVCs in Cantonese. Mandarin RVCs are classified into six types in terms of the number, the sequence, and the event role of the argument(s). While Mandarin RVCs are found to be rather productive in expressing resultatives, there are syntactic constraints imposed on the use of RVC construction in Cantonese. Given that Mandarin RVCs are often restricted in Cantonese, three substitutive constructions that are used to form resultatives have been introduced, namely V-