Compound Directional Complements

Chinese grammar · HSK 3 · 复合趋向补语 · By Carson 木林森

Compound directional complements show direction of movement relative to the speaker.

出来 chū lái to come out 出去 chū qù to go out 回来 huí lai to return; to come back 进去 jìn qù to go in 起来 qǐ lai to stand up

Simple: 来 = toward speaker; 去 = away from speaker.

Compound pairs: 上来/上去, 下来/下去, 进来/进去, 出来/出去, 回来/回去, 过来/过去

Structure: Verb + Direction + 来/去
走进来 (walk in toward speaker) / 走进去 (walk in away from speaker)

Object placement: Object goes between the directional verb and 来/去:
走进教室来 ✅ (walk into the classroom toward speaker)

起来 is special:
- Upward motion: 站起来 (stand up)
- Start doing: 唱起来 (start singing), 笑起来 (start laughing)

Worked examples

Chinese	Pinyin	English	What it shows
他从外面走进来了。	Tā cóng wài miàn zǒu jìn lái le.	He walked in from outside (toward the speaker).	进来 = direction toward speaker; 从…来 gives starting point
老师把书拿出去了。	Lǎo shī bǎ shū ná chū qù le.	The teacher took the book out (away from speaker).	出去 = away from speaker; object 书 placed before the complement via 把
音乐一开始，孩子们就唱起来了。	Yīn yuè yī kāi shǐ, hái zi men jiù chàng qǐ lái le.	As soon as the music started, the children began to sing.	起来 indicating the start of an action (开始义)

Produce this pattern without stopping to think about it. GraphChinese drills Compound Directional Complements across 12 exercises and schedules the review that keeps it.

What you need first

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What this opens up

These patterns list Compound Directional Complements among their own prerequisites, so they become readable once this one holds.

Compound Directional Complements is one topic of 829. GraphChinese teaches them in prerequisite order, so this pattern reaches you on the day everything it rests on is proven. The whole course, HSK 0 through HSK 6, is $49 once for lifetime access.

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