来
to come
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HSK level
- Pinyin
- lái
- Part of speech
- verb
- Level
- HSK 1
- Strokes
- 7
- Register
- neutral
- In episodes
- 2
Stroke order for 来
来 is written with 7 strokes. The animation replays automatically.
What does 来 mean?
来 (lái) is the basic Chinese verb 'to come' — movement toward the speaker or toward a topic of focus.
It is the natural opposite of 去 (qù, 'to go'). Two things surprise English speakers: first, 来 is sensitive to the speaker's position — you 来 toward where the speaker is, you 去 away from it; second, 来 is used in many idiomatic ways beyond literal movement, such as 来 + verb to mean 'come and do something' (来吃饭 'come eat') or 'let me…' (我来 'I'll do it / let me'). In restaurants, 来一个 + dish means 'I'll have one of…'.
来 also pairs with directional complements: 过来 ('come over'), 回来 ('come back'), 上来 ('come up'). At HSK 1, focus on the basic 'come here / come to a place' usage.
Memory hook: 来 originally pictographed a wheat plant — wheat 'came' as a gift from the sky in ancient legend, so the character carried the sense of 'arrive / come.'
Hear 来 in real episodes
来 appears in 2 Fluentide podcast episodes at natural native speed. Each sentence plays at the easiest difficulty it exists in — switch it to hear the same moment at your level, with full pinyin and English throughout.
在他以前，英国有很多小国，常常打来打去。
Before him, there were many small kingdoms in England that often fought each other.
England's First King Æthelstan: 1,100 Years of Near-Forgetting
六万多人来看一场足球比赛。
More than 60,000 people came to watch a football match.
Wuxi Beat Changzhou 2-1 to Win First Jiangsu City Football League Title Before Record 62,356 Crowd
Example sentences
你来吗？
Nǐ lái ma?
Are you coming?
spoken
请来我家。
Qǐng lái wǒ jiā.
Please come to my house.
polite
他明天来。
Tā míngtiān lái.
He's coming tomorrow.
neutral
我来了！
Wǒ lái le!
I'm coming! / Here I come!
spoken
Common phrases with 来
Synonyms
Don't confuse 来 with
去 means 'to go' — movement AWAY from the speaker. 来 = movement toward. From a guest's view, 'come to my house' is 来我家; from the host's view inviting, also 来我家. Direction is relative to the speaker.
莱 is a different character (with a grass radical 艹), used mostly in place names like 莱阳 or surnames. Visually similar to 来 but rare and unrelated in meaning.
Frequently asked questions
Related words from the same episodes
Acquire it by listening
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