Where the Object Goes in Directionals | Chinese (Mandarin) Grammar

Directional complements are easy to build but hard to aim: the moment you add an object, you have to decide where it slots in among the verb, the path (出, 回, 进…), and the deictic 来/去. This is the single trickiest word-order point in the whole directional group, and the rule is not the English one. English fixes the order ("take out the book," "go back to school"); Chinese instead sorts objects into two classes — places and things — and gives each its own slot. Get the class right and the position follows automatically.

Place objects lock before 来 / 去

A location object — where you end up — must sit inside the complement, wedged between the path verb and the final 来/去. It can never follow 来/去. The image is logical: 来/去 tell you which way the motion points relative to the speaker, so they come last, after the destination is already named.

Pattern	Example	Meaning
回 + place + 去	回学校去 (huí xuéxiào qù)	go back to school
上 + place + 来	上楼来 (shàng lóu lái)	come upstairs
走进 + place + 来	走进教室来 (zǒu jìn jiàoshì lái)	walk into the classroom (toward speaker)
搬进 + place + 去	搬进城里去 (bān jìn chéng lǐ qù)	move into the city

快下楼来吃饭！

kuài xià lóu lái chī fàn

Come downstairs for dinner, quick! (informal) — the place 楼 sits before 来.

他毕业以后就搬回老家去了。

tā bìyè yǐhòu jiù bān huí lǎojiā qù le

After graduating he moved back to his hometown. (neutral) — 老家 is wedged inside 回…去.

老师走进教室来的时候，大家都站了起来。

lǎoshī zǒu jìn jiàoshì lái de shíhou, dàjiā dōu zhàn le qǐ lái

When the teacher walked into the classroom, everyone stood up. (neutral) — place 教室 before 来.

💡

If you can drop the final 来/去, a place object always sits directly after the path verb: 回学校 (go back to school), 上楼 (go upstairs). Adding 来/去 for deixis simply parks them at the very end — the place never moves.

Thing objects: split the complement or trail it

A thing object (a book, a gift, an umbrella) is flexible. With a compound directional it may either split the complement — sitting between the path and 来/去 — or trail the whole complement. Both are correct and equally natural; the trailing order is more common in casual speech.

Order	Example	Note
Split: V + path + 一本书 + 来	拿出一本书来 (ná chū yì běn shū lái)	slightly more written / deliberate
Trailing: V + path + 来 + 一本书	拿出来一本书 (ná chū lái yì běn shū)	more common when spoken

他从包里拿出来一个礼物。

tā cóng bāo lǐ ná chū lái yí ge lǐwù

He took a gift out of his bag. (informal) — indefinite thing trails the full complement.

她从书架上抽出一本相册来。

tā cóng shūjià shàng chōu chū yì běn xiàngcè lái

She pulled a photo album off the shelf. (neutral) — the thing 一本相册 splits 出…来.

出门别忘了带一把伞去。

chū mén bié wàng le dài yì bǎ sǎn qù

Don't forget to take an umbrella when you go out. (informal) — with a simple directional, the thing sits before 去.

Definite objects front with 把

When the object is definite ("the keys," "that book" — something already known), speakers overwhelmingly prefer to pull it out front with 把. This dodges the split-or-trail choice entirely and matches the natural topic-comment flow: name the known thing first, then say what happens to it.

请把钥匙拿出来。

qǐng bǎ yàoshi ná chū lái

Please take the keys out. (polite) — definite 钥匙 fronted with 把, complement runs clean at the end.

快把那本书还回去，图书馆要关门了。

kuài bǎ nà běn shū huán huí qù, túshūguǎn yào guān mén le

Hurry and take that book back — the library's about to close. (informal) — 那本书 is definite, so 把 fronts it.

他把行李都搬上楼来了。

tā bǎ xíngli dōu bān shàng lóu lái le

He carried all the luggage up here. (neutral) — 把 handles the definite object, 楼 still sits before 来.

Common Mistakes

1. Putting a place object after 来/去. This is the number-one error, driven straight from English "go back to school." In Chinese the place is locked before 去.

❌ 我暑假想回去中国。

Incorrect — a place can't follow 去; put it before.

✅ 我暑假想回中国去。

wǒ shǔjià xiǎng huí Zhōngguó qù

I want to go back to China over the summer. (Or simply 回中国.)

2. Splitting the complement with a place. Only thing-objects split. A place never wedges between the path and its deixis in the trailing slot.

❌ 他走进来教室了。

Incorrect — 教室 is a place, so it can't trail 来.

✅ 他走进教室来了。

tā zǒu jìn jiàoshì lái le

He walked into the classroom. (place before 来)

3. Fronting with 把 in the wrong order. The 把-phrase comes before the verb, not after the complement.

❌ 他拿出来把钥匙了。

Incorrect — the 把-object must precede the verb.

✅ 他把钥匙拿出来了。

tā bǎ yàoshi ná chū lái le

He took the keys out. (把 fronts the definite object)

4. Using 二 instead of 两 before a measure word. For "two" in front of a classifier it is always 两.

❌ 他从柜子里拿出二瓶啤酒来。

Incorrect — before a measure word 'two' is 两, not 二.

✅ 他从柜子里拿出两瓶啤酒来。

tā cóng guìzi lǐ ná chū liǎng píng píjiǔ lái

He took two bottles of beer out of the cupboard.

Key Takeaways

Place objects lock before 来/去: 回学校去, 上楼来 — never *回去学校.
Thing objects are flexible: split the complement (拿出一本书来) or trail it (拿出来一本书); trailing is more common in speech.
Definite objects front with 把: 把钥匙拿出来 — the cleanest option, and what natives reach for automatically.
With a simple directional (来/去 only), the thing sits directly before 来/去: 带一把伞去.
Use 两, not 二, before a measure word.

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