HSK 1 · Common Verbs

来 lái “to come” in Chinese

Traditional 來

What 来 means

  1. to come
  2. (used as a substitute for a more specific verb)
  3. hither (directional complement for motion toward the speaker, as in 回来)
  4. ever since (as in 自古以来)
  5. for the past (amount of time)
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • (prefix) the coming …
  • the next … (as in 来世)

How to say 来

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale来lái2nd tone, rising

来 in a sentence

  1. 我就知道你会来。

    Wǒ jiù zhīdao nǐ huì lái.

    I knew you’d come.

    Sentence #2003088 from Tatoeba

  2. 我很高兴你今天来了。

    Wǒ hěn gāoxìng nǐ jīntiān lái le.

    I’m glad you came today.

    Sentence #9969232 from Tatoeba

  3. 我们知道你为什么来这儿。

    Wǒmen zhīdao nǐ wèishénme lái zhèr.

    We know why you came here.

    Sentence #5812252 from Tatoeba

How 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 来 (lái) with each of its parts in a different colour
来láito come
  • 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 来

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.

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

Words related to 来

Words with 来

出来chūlái · to come out过来guòlái · to come over回来huílai · to return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: Common Verbs

下雨xiàyǔ · to rain有yǒu · to have在zài · to be at去qù · to go看kàn · to look听tīng · to listen说shuō · to speak读dú · to read

FAQs

来 (lái) means “to come” or “(used as a substitute for a more specific verb)”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it lái: lái with a 2nd 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, 来 is written 來. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type lai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 来 from the suggestions. Typing lai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
来 is an HSK 1 word in the 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.