The usage of "lai2" and "qu4"

[Saturday]

The grammar book I am currently using for my studies of chinese didn't give me a good explaination of the difference and the usage of "lai2" and "qu4", that is, like in a sentences constructed by verb - lai2/qu4.

Have looked around on the net but haven't yet found a site wich explains it good enough. Any one knows one?

[johnmck]

The characters "lai2" means "come" and "qu4" means "go". The characters are combined with other verbs to indicate direction, often "lai2" means to approach the interlocutor and "qu4" means to go away from.

Edit: By "interlocutor" I actually meant the person who is speaking, which I guess is not the correct meaning of "interlocutor".

[yonglin]

Search for "directional complement" or 趋向补语 .

In short, they indicate whether the action takes place in the direction to or from the speaker. However, there are A LOT of idiomatic uses of the directional complement, and you had better consult a good grammar book.

By the way, when used as a directional complement, both 来 and 去 are pronounced in the neutral tone.

[Luoman]

I often hear someone say things like 我马上要过来，while according to textbooks, we should use 去 in this situation.

[muyongshi]

It all depends on what perspective you are taking in the sentence...there is nothing wrong with that sentence. You are just thinking in that persons perspective. Now if you said to the person standing next to you in reference to going to see the friend it has to be 去. English is more or less the same.

[in_lab]

According to a Chinese coworker, you should not say 我马上要过来. lai/qu trips me up in some situations: For the question 你要來嗎? it's tempting to answer 你要我來嗎?, but it should be 你要我去嗎? It seems like the perspective is maintained with 你要我來嗎, but that is apparently wrong.