HSK 3 · Verbs

起来 qǐlai “beginning or continuing an action” in Chinese

Traditional 起來

What 起来 means

  1. beginning or continuing an action
  2. to rise
  3. to stand up
  4. to get up

How to say 起来

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale起qǐ3rd tone, dipping
  • 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

起来 in a sentence

  1. 一切都会好起来的。

    Yíqiè dōu huì hǎo qǐlai de.

    Everything will be all right.

    Sentence #7767746 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 所有的观众都站起来鼓掌。

    Suǒyǒu de guānzhòng dōu zhàn qǐlai gǔzhǎng.

    The whole audience stood up and applauded.

    Sentence #2394584 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 现在我想起来了。

    Xiànzài wǒ xiǎng qǐlai le.

    Now I remember.

    Sentence #472898 from Tatoeba

How 起来 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 起 (qǐ) with each of its parts in a different colour
起qǐto rise
  • 走walk · zǒuMeaning part
  • 己self · jǐSound part

走 hints at the meaning (walk); 己 (jǐ) hints at the sound. Compare it with qǐ.

The character 来 (lái) with each of its parts in a different colour
来láito comelight in 起来
  • 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 起来

起 10 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.

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

Words related to 起来

Words with 起

对不起duìbuqǐ · sorry一起yìqǐ · together起床qǐchuáng · to get up起qǐ · to rise起飞qǐfēi · take off in an aeroplane引起yǐnqǐ · to give rise to看不起kànbuqǐ · to look down upon了不起liǎobuqǐ · amazing起初qǐchū · at first起草qǐcǎo · to draft

Words with 来

来lái · to come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带来dàilái · to bring (about)看来kànlái · it seems

More words: Common Verbs

努力nǔlì · to work hard爬山páshān · mountain climbing骑qí · to ride an animal or bike起飞qǐfēi · take off in an aeroplane请假qǐngjià · to ask for time off上网shàngwǎng · to surf the web生气shēngqì · angry试shì · to try

FAQs

起来 (qǐlai) means “beginning or continuing an action” or “to rise”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it qǐlai: qǐ with a 3rd 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, 起来 is written 起來. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type qilai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 起来 from the suggestions. Typing qilai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
起来 is an HSK 3 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

A dictionary gives you the words. A native teacher shows you how to use them. Start with a free 30-minute intro call.

Book a free intro call

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.