Directional verbs "lai" and "qu"

来 (lái) and 去 (qù) are both words that help to express direction with regards to the speaker. 来 (lái) expresses the location direction of the speaker while 去 (qù) expresses location direction away from the speaker. For example, if you are in China, a local person might ask you: "When did you come to China?" using 来 (lái). Another example is if you want to go from China to Japan, your friends might ask you: “When are you going to Japan?" using 去 (qù). Because of this, it is very important to know when to use 来 (lái) and when to use 去 (qù) correctly.

Basic usage

Structure

来/去 + location

Examples

• 他 来 上海 一 年 了 。 We know that this person is currently in Shanghai.Wǒ lái Shànghǎi yī nián le. I have lived in Shanghai one year.
• 我 上大学 的 时候 去 美国 待 了 一 年 。 This person is not in America anymore.Wǒ shàng daxué de shíhou qùMěiguó dāi le yī nián. I went to stay in America for one year when I was in college.
• 我 要 去 超市。 The speaker is probably at home.Wǒ yào qù chāoshì. I will go to the supermarket.
• 老板 来 公司 了。 The speaker is already in the office.Lǎobǎn lái gōngsī le. The boss is at the office.
• 小王 来 我们 公司 一 个 月 了 。 We know that Xiao Wang and the speaker are both in the same office.Xiǎo Wáng lái wǒmen gōngsī yī gè yuè le. Xiao Wang has worked in our office for a month.
• 我 和 朋友 经常 来 这里 喝 咖啡 。 The speaker is in this moment at that place drinking coffee.Wǒ hé péngyou jīngcháng lái zhèlǐ hē kāfēi. I often go to that place to drink coffee with friends.
• 你 来南京 路 吧 。 The speaker is at Nanjing Road.Nǐ lái Nánjīng Lù ba. Come to Nanjing Road.
• 我 明天 去 美国 。 The speaker is currently not in America.Wǒ míngtiān qù Měiguó. Tomorrow I will go to America.
• 你们 晚上 来 我 家 。 The speaker is in his own home.Nǐ lái wǒ jiā. You can come to my house.
• 我 昨天 去 他 家 了 。 Wǒ zuótiān qù tā jiā le. I went to his house yesterday.

Advanced Usage

来 (lái) and 去 (qù) can both be paired with other verbs to demonstrate the direction an action has taken. For example, 进来 (jìnlái, come in), 进去 (jìnqù, go in), 出来 (chūlái, come out), 出去 (chūqù, go out), 回来 (huílái, come back), 回去 (huíqù, go back), etc. These are called direction complements, and will be covered in detail in a more advanced article.

See also

• Direction complement