Direction complement "-qilai"

起来 (qǐlái) comes up very frequently in Chinese and can be used both literally and figuratively. This is a little like the usage of "up" in English which can be used literally, as in "stand up", or figuratively, as in "add up".

Expressing an upward movement:

起来 can be used to express an upward movement like "up", as in the English examples of "stand up" or "pick up."

• 大家 站 起来 了。
• 快点 把 垃圾 捡 起来。

Expressing bringing things together

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。
• 他 把 袜子 收拾 起来 了。
• 一个 优秀 的 领袖 会 让 他 的 国民 团结 起来。

Expressing an initial judgement

起来 can also be used to express a preliminary judgement. 起来 is used here to express that the speaker has only just initiated an action, and based on that, has made a quick judgement. Frequently the verbs that combine with 起来 are verbs related to sensory perception (how something looks, sounds, feels, tastes, etc.).

It is used in the following structure:

Subject + Verb + 起来 + Adjective

This expresses that the subject seems adjective when the action of the verb is performed. This structure is frequently used with perception verbs such as 看, 听, 尝 etc.

Some examples:

• 他 看 起来 很 友好。
• 那 听 起来 不错。
• 这 瓶 啤酒 尝 起来 像 比利时的。

Sources and further reading

Books

• 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
• Boya Chinese Elementary Starter 2 (博雅汉语初经起步篇) (pp. 80)→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