Learn Hardcore Chinese: tā xiān shàng lóushàng de xǐshǒujiān, zài xiàlái gēn wǒ yìqǐ jìxù gòuwù. - She first goes upstairs to the restroom, then comes back down and continues shopping with me.

先 and 再 are adverbs placed before the verb they modify (上, 下来 here).
You could also say 先……然后……, where 然后 is another “then / afterwards”.
You normally use both parts together; just 先 alone would sound like you’re only talking about the first step without mentioning what comes next.

Why do we have both 上 and 楼上? Isn’t that like saying “go up upstairs”?

It looks redundant in English, but in Chinese the roles are different:

上 (shàng) is the verb: “to go up / go to (a place, often upward)”
楼上 (lóushàng) is the location: “upstairs”

The structure is:

上 + 楼上的洗手间 = go (up) to the upstairs bathroom

You could think of it as:

上 = “go to”
楼上的洗手间 = “the bathroom upstairs”

Natural alternatives:

去楼上的洗手间 – go to the bathroom upstairs
上楼去洗手间 – go upstairs to use the bathroom

But 上楼上的洗手间 is not “up upstairs” in Chinese logic; it’s “go (up) to the upstairs bathroom”.

What is the function of 的 in 楼上的洗手间? Could we say 楼上洗手间 instead?

Here 的 turns 楼上 (“upstairs”) into an attributive modifier of 洗手间 (“bathroom”):

楼上的洗手间 = “the bathroom that is upstairs” / “the upstairs bathroom”

Patterns:

(place) + 的 + (noun)
- 楼上的洗手间 – the bathroom upstairs
- 外面的车 – the car outside
- 学校里的图书馆 – the library in the school

Without 的:

楼上洗手间 is understandable but less standard; it feels more like a compressed, sign-like label (like “Upstairs Restroom” on a sign) rather than a full descriptive phrase in a sentence.

In natural speech, 楼上的洗手间 is the most typical in a full sentence like this.

Why is 下来 used instead of just 下 or 下去? What’s the difference?

下, 下来, and 下去 are related but not identical:

下 (xià) by itself: “to go down / descend”
下来 (xiàlái): directional complement “down + towards the speaker or reference point”
下去 (xiàqù): “down + away from the speaker”

In this sentence:

再下来跟我一起继续购物
implies: she comes down (back to where I am) and then continues shopping with me.

If you used:

再下去跟我一起继续购物 – this would usually sound like “go further down and continue shopping (down there)”, i.e., moving away, not back.

So 下来 matches the idea of returning to the same level/place as the speaker.

Why is there no 她 before 再下来? Should it be 她再下来跟我一起继续购物?

Both are grammatical:

她先上楼上的洗手间，再下来跟我一起继续购物。
她先上楼上的洗手间，她再下来跟我一起继续购物。 (less natural)

In Chinese, once the subject is clear and doesn’t change, it’s common to omit it in later clauses:

她先 A，再 B。
= She first does A, then (she) does B.

Adding 她 again is usually unnecessary and can sound a bit heavy or overly explicit in a simple two-step action like this.

What exactly does 跟 mean here, and how is it different from 和?

In this sentence, 跟 (gēn) means “with”:

跟我一起继续购物 = “continue shopping with me”

跟 and 和 often overlap:

跟我一起……
和我一起……

Both mean “together with me”, and here both are acceptable.

Nuance:

In colloquial Mandarin, 跟 is often more common in “with (someone)” contexts.
和 can sound a little more neutral or slightly formal, depending on context.

But for “with someone do X together”, you can usually use either.

Why do we need both 跟我 and 一起? Isn’t that redundant?

They work together but aren’t strictly the same:

跟我 – “with me” (indicates the companion)
一起 – “together” (emphasizes doing the action jointly)

Possible variations:

跟我一起继续购物 – most natural: “continue shopping together with me”
跟我继续购物 – grammatically OK, but 一起 adds clarity/fluency.
和我一起继续购物 – also fine.

Chinese very often uses …跟/和 + someone + 一起 + verb… to express “do something together with someone”. Using both is standard, not considered redundant.

What does 继续购物 mean exactly? Is it different from 继续买东西?

Both mean “continue shopping”, but there’s a nuance:

购物 (gòuwù) – “to shop, go shopping”
- Slightly more formal/neutral, can sound like “shopping” as an activity (including window-shopping).
买东西 (mǎi dōngxi) – literally “buy things”
- Very common in everyday speech; slightly more casual/colloquial.

In this sentence:

继续购物 – “continue shopping (as an activity)”
继续买东西 – “continue buying things”

Both are natural here. If this were, say, a written narrative or a more “standard” text, 继续购物 fits nicely. In very casual speech, 继续买东西 is also frequent.

Why is there no 了 anywhere? Aren’t these completed actions?

Chinese doesn’t mark all past or completed actions with 了. In this sentence:

先上楼上的洗手间，再下来跟我一起继续购物。

We’re describing a sequence of actions (first do this, then do that), rather than focusing on their completion as “done events”. The adverbs 先 and 再 already show the temporal order.

You could add 了 if you wanted to stress completion, especially if the whole thing is clearly in the past, for example:

她先上了楼上的洗手间，然后下来了，跟我一起继续购物。

But in many narratives or instructions, you simply list actions with 先……再……, no 了 needed.

In 上楼上的洗手间, is 上 the same 上 as in 上楼 (“go upstairs”)?

Yes, it’s the same verb 上 (shàng) “to go up; to go to (a higher place)”.

Different but related uses:

上楼 – go upstairs
上山 – go up the mountain
上车 – get on the vehicle
上楼上的洗手间 – go up (to) the bathroom upstairs

Here, 上 is followed by a location phrase:

楼上的洗手间 is the goal/place of the upward movement.

So, you can see 上楼上的洗手间 as a more specific form of the general pattern 上 + (place).

Could we drop 的 and just say 她先上楼上洗手间 in spoken Chinese?

Native speakers might say something like 去楼上洗手间 quickly in casual speech, but:

楼上的洗手间 is the standard, fully natural attributive phrase.
楼上洗手间 (without 的) sounds more like a label (“Upstairs restroom”) than a smooth phrase inside a sentence.

So:

她先去楼上的洗手间 – very natural.
她先去楼上洗手间 – understandable, might appear in fast speech but feels a bit clipped.

For learners, it’s safer and more idiomatic to keep 的: 楼上的洗手间.

Can 先 and 再 move around in the sentence, like in English “She first… then…”?

In Chinese, 先 and 再 usually go directly before the verb they modify:

她先上楼上的洗手间，再下来跟我一起继续购物。

Alternative word orders are more limited than in English. For example:

❌ 她上先楼上的洗手间 – incorrect
✔️ 她先去楼上的洗手间，然后再下来跟我一起继续购物。
(Here 先 is still before 去, and 再 is before 下来.)

You can sometimes add adverbs before them (她明天先…再…), but you generally keep:

先 + verb
再 + verb

as a tight unit.

Is there any difference between using 洗手间 and 厕所 here?

Both refer to a bathroom/toilet, but register and nuance differ:

洗手间 (xǐshǒujiān)
- Literally “hand-washing room”
- More polite / euphemistic / neutral, especially in public places, stores, malls, etc.
厕所 (cèsuǒ)
- Literally “toilet place”
- Very common, but can sound a bit more blunt in some contexts.

In a shopping context, 楼上的洗手间 matches the polite tone you’d expect in a store. 楼上的厕所 is not wrong, but slightly less “polished”.

Does 继续 modify 购物 or the whole phrase 跟我一起购物?

Grammatically, 继续 modifies the verb phrase that follows it:

继续购物 – continue shopping
跟我一起继续购物 – continue shopping together with me

The structure is:

跟我一起 (prepositional phrase: with me, together)
继续购物 (verb phrase: continue shopping)

So conceptually, she is continuing the activity of shopping with me. The 继续 is tied to 购物, but semantically the “continuation” includes the “with me together” context.