来
Tap the pinyin to hear it
to come; (used as a substitute for a more specific verb); hither (directional complement for motion toward the speaker, as in 回來|回来[hui2 lai5]); ever since (as in 自古以來|自古以来[zi4 gu3 yi3 lai2]); for the past (amount of time); (prefix) the coming ...; the next ... (as in 來世|来世[lai2 shi4]); (between two verbs) in order to; (after a round number) approximately; (used after 得[de2] to indicate possibility, as in 談得來|谈得来[tan2 de5 lai2], or after 不[bu4] to indicate impossibility, as in 吃不來|吃不来[chi1 bu5 lai2])
- HSK 3.0
- Level 1
- Old HSK
- Level 1
- Strokes
- 7
- Radical
- 木 +3
- Structure
- Overlaid 叠加
- Traditional
- 來
- Common rank
- #135
- Unicode
- U+6765
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
How 来 is formed
Ideographic compound (会意字)
A wheat plant that has not yet borne fruit; compare 來
How to remember it
come · Heisig RSH #783
一 one + 米 rice
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Words with 来
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 出来 | to come out; to appear; to arise | |
| 出来 | (after a verb, indicates coming out, completion of an action, or ability to discern or det… | |
| 回来 | to return; to come back | |
| 起来 | to stand up; to get up; also pr. [qi3lai2] | |
| 起来 | (after a verb) indicating the beginning and continuation of an action or a state; indicati… | |
| 进来 | to come in | |
| 来到 | to arrive; to come | |
| 马来人 | Malay person or people | |
| 自来水 | running water; tap water | |
| 马来西亚人 | Malaysian person or people | |
| 来安县 | Lai'an, a county in Chuzhou City 滁州市[Chu2 zhou1 Shi4], Anhui | |
| 下不来 | awkward; embarrassed; cannot be accomplished | |
| 一来 | firstly, ... | |
| 合不来 | (of people) to be incompatible; to not get along; to be unable to see eye to eye | |
| 马来文 | Malay language | |
| 马来西亚 | Malaysia | |
| 来头 | cause; reason; interest; influence | |
| 马来西亚语 | Malaysian Malay (the official variety of Malay spoken in Malaysia) | |
| 来生 | next life | |
| 生来 | from birth; by one's nature |
Sound family
These characters use 来 as their sound component — compare how they read.
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 来 sound part | to arrive, to come, to return; in the future, later on | |
| 莱 | weed, goosefoot; fallow field; used in transliterations | |
| 赉 | to bestow, to confer; surname | |
| 崃 | a mountain in Sichuan province | |
| 涞 | ripple; brook; a river in Hebei province | |
| 睐 | to squint at; a sidelong glance | |
| 徕 | to entice, to solicit; to encourage customers to come | |
| 梾 | dogwood; Cornus macrophylla | |
| 铼 | rhenium |