Chinese Directional Complements: Free PDF and Flashcards

Chinese verbs love a sidekick. Words like 来 (lái) and 去 (qù) hop onto the end of a verb and tell you exactly where the action is heading-up, down, in, out, back, over. These little helpers are directional complements, and they’re the reason you can say “come in,” “go out,” or “bring back” without a pile of extra words.

This list gathers around 55 of the most common directional complements you’ll actually use in daily chats, from ordering 拿上来 (bring it up) to describing where your cat wandered off to. We skipped the obscure grammar-book filler. Every entry pairs a clear meaning with a natural example sentence so you see how the complement behaves in a real Chinese sentence-not a lifeless dictionary entry.

Ready for a quick grammar adventure? These little direction words help Chinese verbs show where action goes, and yes, they’re easier than they sound—scroll to the bottom for the free printable directional complements Chinese vocabulary list PDF and the free downloadable printable directional complements Chinese flashcards.

Use this list as a starting point, then keep going in the Yak Yacker Chinese section for more words, phrases, and study-friendly reference pages.

Quick Quiz

Think you can already tell 上去 from 下去 without blinking? The quick quiz below gives you a friendly nudge-no pressure, just a fun way to see how many complements are really sticking.

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Browse the Full List

Word	Pinyin	Type	Meaning
上去	shàngqù	directional complement	go up
上来	shànglái	directional complement	come up
下去	xiàqù	directional complement	go down
下来	xiàlái	directional complement	come down
买去	mǎi qù	Directional complement	buy and take away
买来	mǎi lái	Directional complement	buy and bring here
传来	chuán lái	directional complement	to pass on (to here), to transmit (towards speaker)
借去	jiè qù	Directional complement	borrow and take away
借来	jiè lái	Directional complement	borrow and bring here
出去 chūqù	go out		他们出去吃饭了。tāmen chūqù chīfàn le.
出来 chūlái	come out		你快出来。nǐ kuài chūlái.
发来	fā lái	directional complement	send (a message/file) over
回去	huíqù	directional complement	go back
回来	huílái	directional complement	come back
寄去	jì qù	directional complement	send away (to a place)
寄来	jì lái	directional complement	to mail here, to send by post (towards speaker)
带去	dài qù	Verb + Directional Complement	take (away from speaker)
带来	dài lái	Verb + Directional Complement	bring (towards speaker)
开来	kāi lái	Directional Complement	open up; apart (indicating separation or spreading)
扔去	rēng qù	Verb + Directional Complement	throw over (away from the speaker)
扔来	rēng lái	Verb + Directional Complement	throw over (towards the speaker)
抬去	tái qù	directional complement	carry away (by lifting)
抬来	tái lái	directional complement	carry over (by lifting)
抱去	bào qù	directional complement	take away in one's arms
抱来	bào lái	directional complement	bring in one's arms

Free Chinese Directional Complements PDF and Flashcard Downloads

Grab the purple vocab-list button for the directional complements Chinese vocabulary list and the teal flashcards button for the directional complements Chinese flashcards. Both downloads are 100% free and require no signup.