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

• 妈妈 要 去 超市。 Mom is probably at home.Māma yào qù chāoshì. Mom will go to the supermarket.
• 老板 来 公司 了。 The boss is already in the office.Lǎobǎn lái gōngsī le. The boss is at the office.
• 你 来南京 路 吧 。 The speaker is at Nanjing Road.Nǐ lái Nánjīng Lù ba. Come to Nanjing Road.
• 这 个 女孩 来 我们 公司 三 个 多 月 了 。 We know that this girl and the speaker are both in the same office.Zhè ge nǚhái lái wǒmen gōngsī yī gè yuè le. This girl's worked in our office for more than 3 months.
• 昨天 我们 去 了 酒吧。 Zuótiān wǒme qù le jiǔbā. We wen to the bar yesterday.
• 他 来 上海 工作 一 年 了 。 We know that this person is currently in Shanghai.Tā lái Shànghǎi gōngzuò yī nián le. He's been working in Shanghai for one year.

I went to stay in America for half an year when I was in college.

• 我 和 朋友 经常 去 星巴克 喝 咖啡 。 The speaker isn't in this moment at Starbucks.Wǒ hé péngyou jīngcháng qù Xīngbākè hē kāfēi. I often go to Starbucks to drink coffee with friends.
• 爸爸 明天 去 北京 出差。 Dad is currently not in Beijing.Bàba míngtiān qù Běijīng chūchāi. Tomorrow dad will go to Beijing on a business trip.
• 我今天 不上班，你们 来 我 家 吃饭 吧。 The speaker is probably in her own home. Wǒ jīntiān bù shàngbān, nǐmen lái wǒ jiā chīfàn ba. I don't have to go to work today.You can come to my house to eat dinner.
• 她 上大学 的 时候 去 美国 待 了 半年。 She is not in America anymore.Tā shàng daxué de shíhou qùMěiguó dāi le bàn nián.

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