During the process when foreigners study Chinese, they may have found that the structure “verb + 来/去” is heard very frequently in the daily conversation. Therefore, it is important for them to understand how to use this structure properly to express what they try to say. The following explanation might be a great help for theChinese language learners.

If the foreign learners go to school to study in China, they may be told by the teachers that it is used to indicate the direction of a certain act, and more specifically, it is the simple complement of direction. If the verbs “来” and “去” are used after some certain verbs, they are functioned as the simple complement to indicate the direction of the act.

But there are also some differences in meaning and usage between the verbs “来” and “去”. Those wholearn to speak Chinese should know that if the act is happening in the direction of the speakers or the things that are referred to, they should use the verb “来”. If it is the opposite, we use “去”.

The followings are some examples illustrated to help students to understand it. If you hear the sentence “上来吧”, you should understand that the one who speaks it is on the upper side. When you learn Mandarin at school, you may often hear teachers say “上课了，快进来吧”. It is easy to understand because you will go toward to the teachers so they use “进来”.

Of course, there are also some other conditions that you should pay attention to when you learn Chinese in China. If the object of the sentence is the word that indicate the place, it should be placed after the verbs“来” and “去”. For example, “我正好要下楼去”。

However, if the object of the sentence is the word that refers to some things, we can put it before or after the verbs “来” and “去”. Here are two examples for those who study in China to understand it. We can say both “他带了一个照相机来” and “他带来了一个照相机”.

According to the explanation above, the application of the structure “verb + 来/去” is simple. The most important thing you should know is the direction of the act. Besides, you should pay attention to some special conditions.