Mandarin · Chapter 33 · Lesson 11 · Grammar primer
Directional complements figurative
Grammar for HSK 5.
The short version
起来 (qǐ lái) starts it, 下去 (xià qù) keeps it going
Once the directionals turn metaphorical, up means the action springs into being and downstream means it carries on. 他唱起来了 (tā chàng qǐ lái le) is the moment he broke into song; 他唱下去了 (tā chàng xià qù le) is him not stopping. Learners over-apply 起来 (qǐ lái) and use it where they mean 'carry on'.
他唱起来了 tā chàng qǐ 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 · 10 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 11 of 11 in this chapter