Direction complement "-qilai"

Revision as of 05:05, 14 November 2011 by Jonathan.pope (talk | contribs)

起来 (qǐlái) comes up very frequently in Chinese and has a variety of meanings. Literally, it is used to express an upward movement:


  • 大家 站 起来 了。
  • 把 垃圾 捡 起来。


It can also be used figuratively to express remembering something that was forgotten, and is almost like the speaker is unable to pick the memory out of their mind.

  • 我 想 起来 了!我们 是 去年 在 北京 开会 的 时候 见面 的!
  • 不好意思,我 记 不起来 你 的 名字!

起来 can also be used to show that an action has started:

  • 大家笑起来了 (the same as 大家开始笑)
  • 两个大妈吵起来了 (the same as 开始吵架)


起来 is often with for spontaneous actions, 起来 cannot be used to for actions which are scheduled


起来 can also be used to express a superficial judgement. This is like the speaker has only just started the action, and upon further investigation may find something different. 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。



See also


Sources and further reading

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