A direction complement is a complement used to describe the direction of a verb. Verbs often already have some inherent movement implied, but by adding a direction complement, it becomes clearer where, exactly, that action is going.

The most basic (and common) form of direction complement is formed by a verb and 来 or 去.

Verb + 来 / 去

The most important thing to consider with direction complements is the position of the speaker. If the action moves towards the speaker or comes closer in any way, use 来. If the action moves away from the speaker or becomes more distant in any way, use 去.

You might be wondering how the directional distinction between 来 and 去 works when you're talking about yourself moving. You can't move away from or towards yourself, so should it be 来 or 去? The answer is to look at the context of the movement you're talking about. Are you telling someone you'll see them tomorrow? Similar to English, in Chinese you'd say something like "I'll come and see you tomorrow."

You can use these simple compounds in a huge variety of situations. Here are some example dialogs to provide a little more context:

Direction complements can be more complex than just 来 or 去.

You can form compound direction complements in the following way:

These compounds can then be used in much the same way as 来 and 去. Attach them to verbs to give detail about the direction of the action.

Verb + [Compound Direction Complement]

Direction complements are not only used to describe the movement of people. Moving objects can also be described with direction complements. Again, the direction of the movement relative to the speaker (or at least to the context of the conversation) is important when deciding what complement to use.

The verbs that commonly appear in this construction include 拿, 送, and 带.

Verb + Object + Complement

Some examples:

Although 回来 and 回去 can be compound complements, they can each also just be the verb 回 with a simple direction complement. Many Chinese learners make the following mistakes:

You can't say 回来中国 because 回 is the verb, 来 is the complement, and 中国 is the object. You can't put both a complement and an object after a single verb, but it's OK to put just a 来 or 去 after the object. In spoken language, if the context is clear, people often omit 来 or 去 and only say 回美国 or 回中国.

Direction complements work very well in 把 sentences, as they can be used to describe the disposal of an object (what happened to it in the end). Because of this, it's very common to see direction complements and 把 appearing together.

Subj. + 把 + Obj. + Verb + [Direction Complement]

See also: 把 sentences

Adding 得 to directional complements makes the phrase an affirmative potential complement. Adding 不 makes the phrase a negative potential complement.

A lot of direction complements, particularly compound direction complements, have additional idiomatic meanings beyond literally describing the direction of an action. The most common of these are: