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

Meanings

1. 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. 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

• 起qǐ (third tone, dipping)to rise
• 一起yìqǐ (fourth tone, falling)together
• 引起yǐnqǐ (third tone, dipping)to give rise to, to cause, to trigger
• 想起xiǎng (third tone, dipping) qǐ (third tone, dipping)to recall
• 对不起/對不起duìbuqǐ (fourth tone, falling)sorry; excuse me
• 起床qǐchuáng (third tone, dipping)to get up, to get out of bed
• 看起来/看起來kàn (fourth tone, falling) qǐ (third tone, dipping) lai (neutral tone)seemingly
• 起诉/起訴qǐ (third tone, dipping) sù (fourth tone, falling)to sue
• 起飞/起飛qǐfēi (third tone, dipping)to take off (of an aircraft)
• 提起tí (second tone, rising) qǐ (third tone, dipping)to mention
• 起码/起碼qǐ (third tone, dipping) mǎ (third tone, dipping)at the minimum
• 发起/發起fā (first tone, high and level) qǐ (third tone, dipping)to originate
• 了不起liǎo (third tone, dipping) bu (neutral tone) qǐ (third tone, dipping)amazing
• 响起/響起xiǎng (third tone, dipping) qǐ (third tone, dipping)(of a sound) to come forth
• 起点/起點qǐ (third tone, dipping) diǎn (third tone, dipping)starting point
• 掀起xiān (first tone, high and level) qǐ (third tone, dipping)to lift
• 起步qǐ (third tone, dipping) bù (fourth tone, falling)to set out