來
láilài HSK1

come

来 來 lái frequency
to come verb
To come; to arrive; to move toward the speaker; to crop up or happen

我实在不该到这里来。

wǒ shí​zài bù gāi dào zhè​lǐ lái.

I really shouldn't have come here.

来跟我们一起喝酒吧。

lái gēn wǒ​men yī​qǐ hē jiǔ ba.

Join us for a drink.

[directional] particle
Used after a verb to indicate motion toward the speaker

昨天她到我房里来了。

zuó​tiān tā dào wǒ fáng li lái le.

She came into my room yesterday.

你能把手机收起来吗？

nǐ néng bǎ shǒu​jī shōu qǐ lái ma?

Can you put your phone away?

in order to prepositionverb
Used between two verb phrases to show that the first action is the means or method used to achieve the second goal

他们是来帮助我们的。

tā​men shì lái bāng​zhù wǒ​men de.

They're here to help us.

我不是来见他的。

wǒ bù​shì lái jiàn tā de.

I'm not here to see him.

since prepositionparticle
Used after a time duration to mean "for the past..." or "ever since"

这地方20年来没有改变。

zhè dì​fang20 nián lái méi​yǒu gǎi​biàn.

This place hasn't changed in 20 years.

三年来，我每个月都给她写信。

sān nián lái, wǒ měi​gè yuè dōu gěi tā xiě xìn.

I've been writing to her every month for three years.

future noun
(bound form) Future; coming; next
to do verb
Used as a substitute for a more specific verb: to do; to bring; to get; to have

今天给我来点特别的。

jīn​tiān gěi wǒ lái diǎn tè​bié de.

Give me something special today.

他问能否给他来杯咖啡。

tā wèn néng​fǒu gěi tā lái bēi kā​fēi.

He asked if he could have a cup of coffee.

can particle
Used after 得 de or 不 bù to indicate being able or unable to do something

我为什么醒不过来？

wǒ wèi​shén​me xǐng bu guò lái?

Why can't I wake up?

世界上所有的钱都买不来和平。

shì​jiè​shang suǒ​yǒu de qián dōu mǎi bu lái hé​píng.

All the money in the world can't buy peace.

[sentence-final] particle
(informal) Used at the end of a sentence to indicate that something happened recently or to ask for a reminder of something that just occurred
around
Used after a round number to indicate an approximate amount: around; over; and more
[listing]
Used after numerals like "one" or "two" to list reasons or points
surname
a Chinese surname
来 來 lài
to encourage
(bound form) To encourage; to reward; to induce to come

Cross-References

Antonym

Same as

Has variant

Frequency
Character
Written text
15th most common 5578.5 per million
Movie subtitles
16th most common 8067.7 per million appears in 100% of films
Word
Movie subtitles
5519.3 per million appears in 100% of films
Written text
2016.7 per million

Details
HSK 2.0
Level 1
HSK 3.0
Level 1
Simplified
来
Strokes
8
Unicode
U+4F86

Sources
Frequency data
MTSU Chinese text computingSUBTLEX-CHBCC Corpus (BLCU)