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A2 · Grammar reference · ASGRBKSL

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).

Structure

来 / 去 + Place

Keywords
来 · 去
Used for
Expressing movement
Classification
Verbs · HSK1

Examples (9)

妈妈要去超市。

老板今天来公司吗?

你现在来南京路吧。

你不想来我们公司工作吗?

去年她去美国工作了几个月。

你们想去Starbucks还是Costa?

周末我喜欢去朋友家。

爸爸明天去北京出差。

我今天不上班,你们可以来我家吃饭。

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Full explanation at AllSet Learning

Summary, structure, classification, and adapted sentence examples draw from the AllSet Learning Chinese Grammar Wiki under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0; changes were made. This noncommercial reference is based on an October 2023 snapshot.

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