Directional verbs "lai" and "qu"

来 (lái) and 去 (qù) are both words that help to express direction from the perspective of the speaker. 来 (lái) means "come" (towards the speaker), while 去 (qù) means "go" (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).

Seems really easy, right? Well, learn them well now, because you'll get a lot of mileage out of these words in future grammar patterns.

Basic usage

Structure

来 / 去 + Place

Examples

• 妈妈 要 去 超市。 Mom is probably at home.Māma yào qù chāoshì. Mom will go to the supermarket.
• 老板 今天 来 公司 吗？The boss is not in the office now.Lǎobǎn jīntiān lái gōngsī ma? Is the boss coming into the office today?
• 你 现在 来南京 路 吧。 The speaker is at Nanjing Road now. Nǐ xiànzài lái Nánjīng Lù ba. Come to Nanjing Road now.
• 你 不 想 来 我们 公司 工作 吗？Nǐ bù xiǎng lái wǒmen gōngsī gōngzuò ma? Do you not want to come to work for our company?
• 昨天 我们 去 了 酒吧。 The speaker is not in the bar now. Zuótiān wǒmen qù le jiǔbā. We went to the bar yesterday.
• 去年 她 去 美国 工作 了 几 个 月 。 She is not in America anymore.Qùnián tā qù Měiguó gōngzuò le jǐ gè yuè. Last year she went to work in America for a few months.
• 你们 想 去 Starbucks 还是 Costa？We know that the speaker is not in Starbucks or Costa. Nǐmen xiǎng qù Starbucks háishì Costa? Would you like to go to Starbucks or Costa?
• 周末 我 喜欢 去 朋友 家。 The speaker is not at his friends' places at this moment.Zhōumò wǒ xǐhuan qù péngyou jiā. I like to go to my friends' places on the weekends.
• 爸爸 明天 去 北京 出差。 Dad is currently not in Beijing.Bàba míngtiān qù Běijīng chūchāi. Dad will go to Beijing on a business trip tomorrow.
• 我 今天 不 上班，你们 可以 来 我 家 吃饭 。 The speaker is probably at home. Wǒ jīntiān bù shàngbān, nǐmen kěyǐ lái wǒ jiā chīfàn. I don't have to go to work today. You can come to my home to eat dinner.

Advanced Usage

来 (lái) and 去 (qù) can both be paired with other simple 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.

When you start tacking these two-character verbs onto the ends of other verbs, they are called direction complements, and are covered in detail in a more advanced article.

See also

• Direction complement