Mandarin · Chapter 22 · Lesson 2 · Grammar primer
Compound directional complements
Grammar for HSK 4.
The short version
Choose 来 (lái) or 去 (qù) from your own feet
The deixis word is decided by where the speaker is standing, not by the doorway or the compass. Outside as your friend runs out to join you, it is 他跑出来了 (tā pǎo chū lái le); inside as he leaves you behind, the same event is 他跑出去了 (tā pǎo chū qù le). And 起 (qǐ) only ever takes 来 (lái): there is no 站起去 (zhàn qǐ qù).
他跑出来了 tā pǎo chū lái le
That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why - and the practice below scores like a vocabulary session and earns the same XP.
Read the full article · 8 min readPractice
Practise this lesson
10-question session
One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end. There are 24 in all: practise more afterwards if you want them.
Lesson 2 of 4 in this chapter