Advanced uses of direction complement "-qilai"

We saw in B1 that 起来 (qǐlái), among other things, can be used to express a literal upward movement. 起来 also has some more slightly less intuitive usages, listed below.

Structure 1

Verb + 起来

起来 can be used to express collecting things together, where in English we might say "tidy up", or "add up".

• 请 把13 和 15 加 起来。
• 宝宝，你 应该 把 你 的 玩具 收拾 起来 。
• 一个 优秀 的 领袖 会 让 他 的 国民 团结 起来。

Expressing initiation of an action

起来 can also be used to show that an action or state has started and is ongoing:

• 大家 笑 起来 了。
• 两 个 大妈 吵 起来 了。
• 今天 天气 热 起来 了。
• 他的病 好起来了。

So 笑起来 is the same as 开始笑. When used like this, 起来 is only used with spontaneous actions, like 唱, 跳, 讨论, or with states like 热，冷，or 好 etc. It cannot be used with planned actions.

For example:

• 我们 做饭 起来 吧。
• 我们 开始 做饭 吧。

See also

• Result complement "-qilai"
• Figurative directional complements 下去 and 出来
• Direction complement
• Result complements "dao" and "jian"
• Appearance with "kanqilai"

Sources and further reading

Books

• Boya Chinese Elementary Starter 2 (博雅汉语初经起步篇) (pp. 80) →buy
• Chinese Grammar - Broken down into 100 items - Basic and Intermediate Levels (汉语语法百项讲练 - 初中级) (pp. 25-31) →buy
• Integrated Chinese: Level 2, Part 1 (pp. 342-3) →buy
• New Practical Chinese Reader 3 (新实用汉语课本3) (pp. 169) →buy
• New Practical Chinese Reader 5 (新实用汉语课本5) (pp. 134-5) →buy

Websites

• Yale: Extended meaning of some directional complements