HSK 3.0 Level 2 · Places

回来 huílai “to return” in Chinese

Traditional 回來

What 回来 means

  1. to return
  2. to come back

How to say 回来

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale回huí2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own来laineutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

回来 in a sentence

  1. 欢迎回来。我们想你了！

    Huānyíng huílai. Wǒmen xiǎng nǐ le!

    Welcome back. We missed you!

    Sentence #793946 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 明天爸爸就回来了。

    Míngtiān bàba jiù huílai le.

    Dad will be back tomorrow.

    Sentence #924611 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我的朋友还没回来。

    Wǒ de péngyou hái méi huílai.

    My friend hasn’t come back yet.

    Sentence #9990094 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 回来 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 回 (huí) with each of its parts in a different colour
回huíto go back; to return; to turn back
  • 囗enclosure · wéi
  • 口mouth · kǒu

Memory aidOne square inside another, like going round and coming back: to return.

The character 来 (lái) with each of its parts in a different colour
来láito comelight in 回来
  • 未part of the character
  • 丷eight form of 八 · bā

Memory aidDrawn from a stalk of wheat. It was borrowed early on for “to come”.

How to write 回来

回 6 strokes · 来 7 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

回来 (huílai) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 回来 (huílai). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 回来

Words with 回

回huí · to return回去huíqu · to return回答huídá · to reply回忆huíyì · to recall回顾huígù · to look back回避huíbì · to avoid挽回wǎnhuí · to retrieve回报huíbào · to repay回收huíshōu · to recycle

Words with 来

来lái · to come出来chūlái · to come out过来guòlái · to come over进来jìnlái · to come in上来shànglái · to come up下来xiàlai · to come down后来hòulái · afterwards起来qǐlai · beginning or continuing an action带来dàilái · to bring (about)看来kànlái · it seems

More words: Places & Getting Around

出去chūqù · to go out打车dǎchē · to take a taxi (in town)公交车gōngjiāochē · public transport vehicle过来guòlái · to come over回去huíqu · to return进来jìnlái · to come in进去jìnqù · to go in里面lǐmiàn · inside

FAQs

回来 (huílai) means “to return” or “to come back”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 2 word.
Say it huílai: huí with a 2nd tone, then lai with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 回来 is written 回來. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type huilai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 回来 from the suggestions. Typing huilai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
回来 is an HSK 3.0 Level 2 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 2 word list. It is not on the older HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.