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HSK 3 Directional Complements for Beginning an Action: Verb + 上 and Verb + 起来
In Mandarin, directional complements often extend beyond physical movement to express aspectual meanings. At HSK Level 3, both Verb + 上 and Verb + 起来 indicate that an action, habit, or psychological state has begun, though they pair with different types of verbs and follow distinct object placement rules.
来中国以后，他慢慢爱上了喝茶。
爱上 expresses the onset of a new emotional state or preference; the object 喝茶 follows 上了.
× 大家高兴地唱起来歌。
Incorrect: When 起来 means to start doing an action, a noun object like 歌 cannot follow 来. Replace with 大家高兴地唱起歌来。
Corrected example: 大家高兴地唱起歌来。
Read the full explanation and examples
From Physical Direction to the Start of an Action
Basic directional complements describe literal movement in space, such as walking up stairs or standing up. However, in the HSK Level 3 grammar syllabus (outline point hsk-3-g059), the complements 上 (shàng) and 起来 (qǐlái) are introduced in their extended sense: marking the beginning (inceptive aspect) of an action, habit, or state.
Grammatically, these words sit immediately after the main predicate verb as a complement. Instead of answering where someone moves, they show that the subject has transitioned from not doing or feeling something into doing or feeling it. Although both forms express a beginning, they are not freely interchangeable; they select different verbs and follow different rules when an object is present.
Using Verb + 上 for New Feelings, Habits, and States
When 上 indicates the start of an action or state, it most commonly attaches to psychological verbs of affection or interest—such as 爱 (ài, to love), 喜欢 (xǐhuan, to like), or 看 (kàn, in expressions of taking a liking to)—or to verbs indicating that someone has entered a sustained activity or habit. It highlights that the subject has developed a new attachment or become engaged in a new state that continues after its onset.
With Verb + 上, the complement stays directly attached to the verb. Because this pattern usually describes a change into a new state that has already occurred, the aspect particle 了 (le) frequently appears right after 上 and before the object (which can be a noun phrase or a verb phrase).
来中国以后，他慢慢爱上了喝茶。
爱上 expresses the onset of a new emotional state or preference; the object 喝茶 follows 上了.
妹妹最近喜欢上了跑步，每天早上都去公园。
喜欢上 marks the transition from not having a particular interest in running to actively liking it.
Using Verb + 起来 for Actions That Start and Build Up
In its beginning-action use, 起来 combines with actions such as 哭, 笑, 唱 and 聊. The full sentence tells you when the beginning occurs or whether it is only expected: 别一听这事就哭起来 asks the listener not to start crying, rather than saying they already have. For 下雨, use the split pattern 下起雨来.
听到这个消息，她突然哭起来了。
哭 has no object here, so 起来 stays together directly after the verb.
Word Order Restrictions: Splitting 起来 Around an Object
The most important syntactic rule for Verb + 起来 involves object placement. When the verb takes an object—including the noun part of a separable verb like 唱歌 (chàng gē, to sing a song) or 聊天 (liáo tiān, to chat)—the object cannot be placed after 来. Instead, 起来 must split apart so that the object sits between 起 and 来.
大家高兴地唱起歌来。
唱歌 is a separable verb-object compound; the noun object 歌 must be placed between 起 and 来.
× 大家高兴地唱起来歌。
Incorrect: When 起来 means to start doing an action, a noun object like 歌 cannot follow 来. Replace with 大家高兴地唱起歌来。
Corrected example: 大家高兴地唱起歌来。
他们一见面就聊起工作来了。
The topic object 工作 sits between 起 and 来, while sentence-final 了 appears at the very end.
Distinguishing This Usage from Neighbouring Complements
Because the characters 上, 起, and 来 appear in several different HSK 3 complement patterns, you must rely on the verb and context to identify the exact meaning:
- These complements overlap but are not freely interchangeable. 爱上 and 喜欢上 are useful new-preference patterns; 哭起来 and 聊起来 are common action-onset patterns. 上 can also mark entry into an activity: 小孩又哭上了 or 两个人一见面就聊上了. Learn the whole combination and its context rather than banning 上 with physical or vocal actions.
- Beginning a state (Verb + 上) versus result of attachment/closure (Resultative Verb + 上): When 上 follows verbs like 关 (guān, to close) or 穿 (chuān, to put on), it is a resultative complement indicating contact, closure, or successful completion rather than the start of an ongoing habit.
- Beginning an action (Verb + 起来) versus continuing an action (Verb + 下去 / 下来): 起来 focuses strictly on the onset (shifting from stillness to action). To express that an action that has already started continues into the future or up to the present, Chinese uses different directional complements such as 下去 or 下来.
- Extended beginning versus literal upward movement: With physical posture or motion verbs like 站 (zhàn, to stand) or 拿 (ná, to take), 起来 often keeps its literal spatial meaning of moving upward rather than starting an activity.
Frequently asked questions
Why can an object follow 爱上 directly, while 唱起来 must split into 唱起歌来?
上 is a single-character complement, so any object naturally comes after the verb-complement unit (and after aspectual 了). 起来 is a compound directional complement ending in 来; in standard Mandarin syntax, when a verb with 起来 takes a noun object, that object must precede 来, creating the Verb + 起 + Object + 来 frame.
Can I use 上 instead of 起来 with any action verb to mean 'start to'?
Not with every verb. Learn common combinations: 爱上, 喜欢上, 哭起来 and 聊起来. There is overlap: 哭上了 and 聊上了 can also mark starting an activity. The choice depends on the verb, construction and context, not a strict feelings-versus-physical-actions division.
Where does 了 go when using Verb + 起来?
When there is no object, 了 usually goes at the end: Verb + 起来 + 了 (哭起来了). When there is an object split between 起 and 来, 了 is placed at the end of the clause after 来: Verb + 起 + Object + 来 + 了 (聊起工作来了).
