(lái) - to come in Mandarin

lái

Traditional: 來

HSK 1

#33 of 2,700Core 1000

Translation

to come

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Word origin

来 means to come. It was originally a pictograph of a wheat or barley plant with its hanging ears, later borrowed for the verb to come; simplified from 來.

Origin: pictograph
Root: 来 (lái), originally a stalk of wheat

Stroke order

来

Examples

？

When are you coming?

！

Welcome to China!

。

He came from Shanghai.

，。

Another cup of coffee, please.

。

Let me introduce myself.

来 (lái) is the counterpart to 去 (qù, to go), indicating movement toward the speaker or a reference point. As a directional complement appended to other verbs, 来 signals movement toward the speaker: 拿来 (bring here), 进来 (come in), 上来 (come up). This directional complement system is a key feature of Mandarin verb grammar.

The simplified character 来 and its traditional form 来 both derive from a pictograph of a wheat or barley plant. The word originally meant "wheat arriving" (i.e., the harvest coming), and its meaning generalised to "to come." It appears in many common expressions including 来得及 (lái de jí, to have enough time) and 将来 (jiānglái, the future).

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Appears in 27 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 来.

回来huí láito come back, to return 起来qǐ láito get up, to rise 出来chū láito come out, to emerge 过来guò láito come over, to come across 看起来kàn qǐ láiit seems, it looks like, apparently 来说lái shuōspeaking of, in terms of, for (plus perspective)进来jìn láito come in, to enter 下来xià láito come down, to descend 从来cóng láialways, ever, from the beginning (used with negatives)看来kàn láiit seems, it looks like, apparently 带来dài láito bring, to bring about 来自lái zìto come from, to originate from 来到lái dàoto come to, to arrive at 未来wèi láifuture 本来běn láioriginally, at first 原来yuán láioriginally, as it turned out, so 后来hòu láiafterwards, later 接下来jiē xià láinext, following, what comes next 来看lái kànto come and see, to look at, judging by 越来越yuè lái yuèmore and more, increasingly 用来yòng láiused for, used to 留下来liú xià láito stay behind, to remain 停下来tíng xià láito stop, to come to a halt 上来shàng láito come up, to come up to 醒来xǐng láito wake up, to awaken 以来yǐ láisince (a point in time), ever since 从来不cóng lái bùnever (does), has never

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Mandarin · Free printables

来: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "来" (to come): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

This word is taught in chapter 2, lesson 4: 来, 会, 把 and 7 more words.