How to say 來

  • Traditional characters: 來
  • Pinyin (Taiwan standard): lái
  • Zhuyin (bopomofo): ㄌㄞˊ
  • Meaning: to come

Hear it in a Taiwan accent:

來 in example sentences

Real lines from CiaoSpeak’s graded stories, each with pinyin, an English translation and Taiwan-accent audio.

老師來了！

lǎo shī lái le

The teacher's coming!

From the story 你是老師嗎？ (Are You a Teacher?)

我家的冷氣壞了…房東說下禮拜才來修。

wǒ jiā de lěng qì huài le fáng dōng shuō xià lǐ bài cái lái xiū

My AC's broken... the landlord says he can't come fix it until next week.

From the story 三十六度 (Thirty-Six Degrees)

明天我還要來。

míng tiān wǒ hái yào lái

I'm coming back tomorrow.

From the story 三十六度 (Thirty-Six Degrees)

謝謝你來。還有，蠟燭很漂亮。

xiè xie nǐ lái hái yǒu là zhú hěn piào liang

(whispering back) Thanks for coming. And the candles are lovely.

From the story 驚喜派對 (The Surprise Party)

下次你先打包行李，我來訂房。

xià cì nǐ xiān dǎ bāo xíng lǐ wǒ lái dìng fáng

Next time you pack the luggage. I'll do the booking.

From the story 訂錯了 (Booked Wrong)

Where 來 is taught

  • Unit level: TOCFL Novice 2 (CiaoSpeak’s placement, not the official TOCFL word list)
  • Unit: People, Actions & Questions
  • Lesson: Everyday Verbs
  • Taught just before: 要
  • Taught just after: 吃