Writing Balance Rule: Center the vertical brush stroke perfectly down the middle, balancing the horizontal spreading branches on both the left and right sides.
Simplification Logic: The traditional character '來' contains a wheat stalk with kernels represented by small dots inside. In simplified Chinese, the overall structure was streamlined while keeping the distinctive wheat-stalk shape intact.
1. Meaning
to come, arrive, or move toward the speaker
to act as a substitute for a more specific verb (e.g., to order food or drinks)ever since or for the past amount of timeprefix indicating the coming or next time periodin order to connect two verbs
VerbNeutral#movement#direction#time
Sample Usage
你什么时候来？
nǐ shén me shí hou lái?
When are you coming?
他刚来中国。
tā gāng lái zhōng guó.
He just came to China.
2. Sound
/[laɪ̯³⁵]/Tone: 35
來
láilai2
|
++
´(35)
=lái
Initial Consonant
l
Type: Alveolar Lateral
Sounds like: l sound
Unaspirated
Airflow Tactile Test: Air flows freely around both sides of tongue.
Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge right behind the upper front teeth, allowing air to escape over the sides of the tongue.
Final Rhyme
ai
Vowel Group: -a vowel group
Sounds like: -ai rhymes with 'eye' or 'high'
Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'eye'.
Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.
Tone
T2 (35)
3 → 5 (35)
2nd Tone (Mid-Rising)
Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 2 starts in the middle register and rises sharply to the top, exactly like a questioning English 'What?'
Sandhi: When followed by a 4th tone, it shifts to a half-rising contour, though underlyingly it remains a rising tone.
👂
Listening trap: Mistaking the rising tone (Tone 2, lái) for the falling tone (Tone 4, lài) or dipping tone (Tone 3, lǎi).
👋
Physical Tone Gesture: Raise your hand upward from left to right like climbing a slope while asking a question, matching the rising pitch of Tone 2.
3. Writing
Topology: Single character · Strokes: 7 strokes
Writing Balance Rule: Center the vertical brush stroke perfectly down the middle, balancing the horizontal spreading branches on both the left and right sides.
Simplification Logic: The traditional character '來' contains a wheat stalk with kernels represented by small dots inside. In simplified Chinese, the overall structure was streamlined while keeping the distinctive wheat-stalk shape intact.
4. Components
Radical木 · Tree / Wood Radical (tree or timber)
Originally a picture of a wheat plant hanging heavy with grain. Over time, it came to mean 'to come' due to homophonic borrowing in ancient Chinese.
木 Serves as the foundational structural base resembling a tree or plant
一 / 人 Representing the upper stalks and falling grains
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
7· Phonetic Root: 來 ()
5. History
Liushu category: Pictogram (象形)
Origin: In Oracle Bone script, '來' was originally a pictograph of a wheat plant (麥). Ancient farmers viewed the arrival of the wheat harvest as a blessing that had 'come' to them.
Semantic Evolution: Because the Chinese word for 'wheat' sounded identical to the word for 'to come', the character for wheat was borrowed to represent the abstract motion verb 'to come'.
The character for wheat (麥) was later created by adding a foot component to '來' to distinguish the grain from the verb.
6. Sinosphere
🇯🇵
Kanji (Japanese)
On: ライ (rai) / Kun: く.る (ku.ru)
🇰🇷
Hanja (Korean)
래
7. Memory
Vivid Mnemonic Story
Picture a traveler walking past a tall wheat plant (木), arriving (来) at the farm just as the harvest is ready.
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
莱
láiweed / goosefootAdd the grass radical (艹) on top to mean weeds growing in the fields.
崍
láiname of a mountainAdd the mountain radical (山) on the left to indicate a mountain name.
Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)
米(mǐ)
米 means rice and has crossing diagonal strokes, whereas 来 has a vertical trunk with symmetrical branches.
未(wèi)
未 means 'not yet' and its top horizontal line is shorter than the bottom horizontal line, exactly the reverse of '末'.
8. Mastery
Active Recall Challenge
歡迎你到我家來[___]。
Clue: lái
Common Learner Pitfall
Confusing the stroke order of the horizontal and vertical lines in the center, causing the character to look lopsided.
Memory Prompts
Recognition: What does the character 来 mean and how is it pronounced with tones?
Production: How do you write the character for 'to come' (lái) in 7 strokes?
Real-World Video Context
Watch authentic native speakers pronounce and explain this word in real-world YouTube videos.
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來láito come
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