Directional Complements 趋向补语 | Chinese (Mandarin) Grammar

A directional complement (趋向补语) tacks a motion morpheme onto a verb to say which way the action moves — and, crucially, moves relative to where the speaker stands. 跑 is just "run"; 跑出去 is "run out (away from me)." 拿 is "take/hold"; 拿回来 is "bring back (toward me)." Where English leans on separate particles and the loose pair come / go, Mandarin builds a tidy, predictable stack: verb + direction + speaker-anchor. This page frames the whole subgroup and nails down the one idea everything else rests on — the deictic split between 来 (lái) and 去 (qù).

The two layers: path and deixis

Directional morphemes come in two families. Learn them as two layers, because compound directionals simply combine one from each.

Deictic layer — 来 / 去. These are the anchor. 来 means motion toward the speaker (or toward the place the conversation is centered on); 去 means motion away from them. This is the layer with no real English grammatical parallel — come and go gesture at it, but Chinese uses it systematically on almost every motion verb.

Path layer — 上 / 下 / 进 / 出 / 回 / 过 / 起. These give the physical trajectory:

Morpheme	Reading	Path	Example verb
上	shàng	up / onto	上来 (come up)
下	xià	down / off	下去 (go down)
进	jìn	in / into	进来 (come in)
出	chū	out / out of	出去 (go out)
回	huí	back / return	回来 (come back)
过	guò	over / across / past	过去 (go over)
起	qǐ	up (from rest, into view)	起来 (rise up)

Used alone after a verb, any of these single morphemes is a simple directional (进来, 上去, 拿来). Stack a path morpheme and 来/去 together and you get a compound directional (走进来, 跑出去). One special case: 起 only pairs with 来 — there is 起来 but never *起去.

快进来吧，外面太冷了！

kuài jìn lai ba, wàimiàn tài lěng le!

Come on in — it's freezing out there! (informal) — simple directional 来: motion toward the speaker inside.

他跑进来的时候，大家都吓了一跳。

tā pǎo jìn lai de shíhou, dàjiā dōu xià le yí tiào

When he ran in, everyone jumped. (neutral) — compound 进来 = path 进 + anchor 来, on the verb 跑.

来 or 去 is about the speaker, not the map

This is where English speakers go wrong. 来/去 do not encode a fixed direction in the world — they encode direction relative to the speaker's vantage point. The very same staircase is climbed with 上来 or 上去 depending only on where you are:

我在楼上，你上来吧。

wǒ zài lóu shàng, nǐ shàng lai ba

I'm upstairs — come up. — the speaker is at the top, so the motion approaches: 上来.

我在楼下，你下来吧。

wǒ zài lóu xià, nǐ xià lai ba

I'm downstairs — come down. — same idea, other direction: motion still toward the speaker, so 来.

妈妈在客厅喊：“你们快下来吃饭！”

māma zài kètīng hǎn: “nǐmen kuài xià lai chī fàn!”

From the living room Mom yells, 'Come down and eat!' — she's below the kids, so their coming-down is 来 toward her.

Now flip the scene: a friend upstairs phones you downstairs, and you announce that you're heading up. In English you'd still say "I'll come up" — but from your standpoint the motion leaves you, so Chinese switches to 去: 我上去. The rule is mechanical once internalized: motion approaching the speaker → 来; motion departing the speaker → 去.

外面有人敲门，你出去看看是谁。

wàimiàn yǒu rén qiāo mén, nǐ chū qu kàn kan shì shéi

Someone's knocking — go out and see who it is. — the going-out leaves the speaker, so 去.

💡

When 来/去 sit directly on a verb as a complement, they usually go toneless in speech: 进来 jìn lai, 出去 chū qu, 下去 xià qu. They regain full tone when a location object comes between the verb and 来/去 (回家来huí jiā lái) — see the next page.

Where the subgroup goes from here

This overview opens a ladder of four pages. Climb them in order:

Simple directionals 来 & 去 — 来/去 straight on a verb (拿来, 上去), and where a place object sits (回家来).
Compound directionals: path + 来/去 — the two layers stacked (走进来, 拿回来), and the tricky object slot (拿出一本书来).
Literal 起来: motion upward — the physical "up" of 站起来, 拿起来.
Beyond the literal, every directional grows figurative meanings. The biggest is aspectual 起来 (onset): 下起雨来 "it started raining," covered under inceptive 起来. Learn the concrete motion first; the figures grow out of it.

If you want 来 and 去 as full main verbs ("come," "go" on their own — 你来吗?), that's a separate topic; see 来 and 去 as motion verbs.

💡

A directional complement isn't optional decoration — it's how Mandarin normally reports motion. Where English is happy with a bare "he ran," Chinese speakers almost reflexively add the trajectory and anchor: 他跑出去了, 他跑进来了. If your motion sentences feel flat or "textbook," a missing 来/去 is often why.

Common Mistakes

1. Defaulting to 去 for all motion and ignoring your vantage point. Learners treat 去 as a neutral "move" and forget the speaker anchor.

❌（你在楼上，叫朋友）你上去吧。

Wrong if you're at the top calling a friend up — the motion approaches you, so 上来.

✅（你在楼上，叫朋友）你上来吧。

nǐ shàng lai ba

Come on up. — motion toward the speaker takes 来.

2. Inventing 起去. 起 only combines with 来.

❌ 请大家站起去。

Wrong — 起 never pairs with 去; it's always 起来.

✅ 请大家站起来。

qǐng dàjiā zhàn qǐ lai

Everyone please stand up. — the only option is 起来.

3. Reversing the layers. The order is fixed: verb, then path, then 来/去 — never path after the deictic.

❌ 他走来进了。

Wrong order — path 进 must precede the anchor 来: 走进来.

✅ 他走进来了。

tā zǒu jìn lai le

He walked in. — verb 走 + path 进 + anchor 来.

Key Takeaways

A directional complement = verb + direction morpheme, showing which way the action moves relative to the speaker.
Two layers: deixis (来 toward speaker / 去 away) and path (上下进出回过起). Simple directionals use one morpheme; compounds stack path + 来/去.
来/去 track the speaker's standpoint, not a fixed map direction — the same stairs are 上来 or 上去 depending on where you are.
起 only takes 来 (起来), never 去.
The order is rigid: verb → path → 来/去. Master the simple and compound forms, then the figurative extensions like inceptive 起来.

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