HSK 5 grammar · complement
得+不得了／慌／厉害
V/Adj + 得 + 不得了 / 慌 / 厉害 — to an unbearable degree
Pattern
+ +
+ +
( ) can be left out · other words may come before, between and after
How it works
These complements pile degree onto a state and usually an uncomfortable one: 高兴得不得了, 累得慌, 害怕得厉害. The second frame skips 得 and uses 坏 or 透 directly — 担心坏了, 伤透了心 — which is stronger and more colloquial. Like 极了 and 死了 they REPLACE 很 rather than combining with it, and 慌 in particular only attaches to physical discomfort (累得慌, 饿得慌), never to happiness.
Examples
爸爸答应去公园，儿子开心得不得了。
Bàba dāying qù gōngyuán, érzi kāixīn de bùdéliǎo.
Dad agreed to go to the park and his son was overjoyed.
我只是累得慌，休息休息就好了。
Wǒ zhǐshì lèi de huāng, xiūxi xiūxi jiù hǎo le.
I'm just worn out — a rest will sort me out.
这么晚了孩子还没回家，张老师担心坏了。
Zhème wǎn le háizi hái méi huí jiā, Zhāng lǎoshī dānxīn huài le.
The child still wasn't home so late, and Teacher Zhang was worried sick.
Related
See it in a story
In the app, 得+不得了／慌／厉害 is underlined wherever it appears in the stories you read, and practised with sentences from them. Free.