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
拿去 ná qù	take away		把这个拿去。bǎ zhège ná qù.
拿回	ná huí	Directional Complement	bring back; take back
拿来 ná lái	bring here		把手机拿来。bǎ shǒujī ná lái.
提去	tí qù	directional complement	take away by carrying (hand)
提来	tí lái	directional complement	bring by carrying (hand)
搬去	bān qù	directional complement	move (something) away
搬来	bān lái	directional complement	to move (something) here, to bring over by carrying
游去	yóu qù	Directional complement	to swim away from the speaker
游来	yóu lái	Directional complement	to swim towards the speaker
漂去	piāo qù	Directional complement	to float away from the speaker
漂来	piāo lái	Directional complement	to float towards the speaker
租去	zū qù	Directional complement	rent and take away
租来	zū lái	Directional complement	rent and bring here
走去	zǒu qù	directional complement	walk over to, go (on foot)
走来	zǒu lái	directional complement	to walk over, to come walking (towards speaker)
起来	qǐ lái	Directional Complement	rise up; start (indicating upward movement or beginning of action)
跑去	pǎo qù	Verb + Directional Complement	run over (away from the speaker)
跑来	pǎo lái	Verb + Directional Complement	run over (towards the speaker)
跳去	tiào qù	Directional complement	to jump away from the speaker
跳来	tiào lái	Directional complement	to jump towards the speaker
过去	guò qù	Directional Complement	go over (away from speaker)
过来	guò lái	Directional Complement	come over (towards speaker)
进去 jìnqù	go in		他已经进去。tā yǐjīng jìnqù.
进来 jìnlái	come in		你先进来。nǐ xiān jìnlái.
送去	sòng qù	directional complement	to send away, to deliver (to a place)

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.