去 (qù) in Mandarin: to go

Translation

to go

Word origin

去 (qù) shows a person above an enclosure or opening, an image of leaving a place. It means 'to go' or 'to leave', and also serves as a directional complement marking movement away from the speaker.

Origin: ideograph
Root: 大 (person) over 厶 (an opening/enclosure)

Stroke order

去

Examples

？

Where are you going?

课kè。

I am going to school for class tomorrow.

。

He went to the supermarket to buy things.

。

I'm going to Shanghai tomorrow.

。

He went to France last year.

去 (qù) is one of the most fundamental movement verbs in Mandarin. Its character depicts a person departing - the top component suggests a person and the bottom suggests movement away. As a directional complement, 去 can follow other verbs to indicate movement away from the speaker, contrasting with 来 (lái), which indicates movement toward the speaker.

In everyday speech, 去 appears in countless fixed expressions and compound words. It pairs naturally with destinations (去学校, go to school; 去医院, go to hospital) and can serve as a complement after verbs of motion to specify direction. The verb is used in both formal and informal registers without variation.

Related words

来

to come

到

to arrive; to (destination); result complement

在

at, in, on; to be located at; progressive marker

走

to walk; to leave, to go

上

up, above, on; to go up; to attend

Appears in 11 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 去.

出去chū qùto go out, to exit 过去guò qùpast, the past; to pass by 回去huí qùto go back, to return 失去shī qùto lose, to be deprived of 进去jìn qùto go in, to enter 下去xià qùto go down; to continue, to keep going 看上去kàn shàng qùto look, to seem, to appear 上去shàng qùto go up 死去sǐ qùto die, to pass away 去世qù shìto pass away, to die 去年qù niánlast year

Used in

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去(qù) - to go in Mandarin