Advanced uses of direction complement "-qilai"

We saw in B1 that 起来 (qǐlái), among other things, can be used to express a literal upward movement. 起来 also has some more slightly less intuitive usages, listed below.


Structure 1

Verb + 起来

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。
  • 宝宝，你 应该 把 你 的 玩具 收拾 起来 。
  • 一个 优秀 的 领袖 会 让 他 的 国民 团结 起来。

Expressing initiation of an action

起来 can also be used to show that an action or state has started and is ongoing:

  • 大家 笑 起来 了。
  • 两 个 大妈 吵 起来 了。
  • 今天 天气 热 起来 了。
  • 他的病 好起来了。

So 笑起来 is the same as 开始笑. When used like this, 起来 is only used with spontaneous actions, like 唱, 跳, 讨论, or with states like 热，冷，or 好 etc. It cannot be used with planned actions.

For example:

  • 我们 做饭 起来 吧。
  • 我们 开始 做饭 吧。

See also

Sources and further reading

Books

Websites

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