HSK Guide

起来起來 qǐlái — to get up, to stand up, to rise

qǐlái (third tone, dipping)qi3lai2

Traditional: 起來

to get up, to stand up, to rise

HSK 3· HSK 1–4 (classic)Level 3· Three-band, nine-level standardverbcomplement
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Meanings

  1. to get up, to stand up, to rise

    To come up from where you were — out of a chair, off the ground, out of sleep. 起 is the rising and 来 points it towards the speaker.

    verb

  2. complement: to start …ing, to … up

    complement

    After a verb, 起来 says the action began and carried on: 笑起来 burst out laughing, 下起雨来 it started raining. After an adjective it frames a judgement: 看起来很累 "looks tired", 听起来不错 "sounds good". When the verb has an object, the object splits the complement: 想起他来.

Character breakdown

  • 起
    qǐ (third tone, dipping)

    to rise, to get up, to stand up; to begin; to raise; a measure word for cases or incidents

    10 strokes⿺走己Radical 走

Example sentences

  • 他早上六点就起来了。他早上六點就起來了。Tā (first tone, high and level) zǎoshang (third tone, dipping) liù (fourth tone, falling) diǎn (third tone, dipping) jiù (fourth tone, falling) qǐlái (third tone, dipping) le. (neutral tone)···

    He was up at six in the morning.

  • 大家都笑起来了。大家都笑起來了。Dàjiā (fourth tone, falling) dōu (first tone, high and level) xiào (fourth tone, falling) qǐlái (third tone, dipping) le. (neutral tone)···

    Everybody burst out laughing.

Common mistakes

  • Not quite他看起来像很累。

    Correct他看起来很累。

    看起来 already means "looks"; the adjective follows it directly. Adding 像 doubles the verb, as "he looks like tired" does in English.

Similar words

Words containing 起