▎起, qĭ, (Ptc), as Verb Particle, to touch upon (2)

 

Function When 起 combines with action verbs as their verb-particle, it refers to a meaning of ‘to touch upon’, e.g., 聊起liáoqǐ ‘to have talked about’, 想起xiǎngqǐ ‘to have recalled, to have remembered’, 談起tánqǐ ‘to have talked about’, 說起shuōqǐ ‘to have spoken of’.

1 他常跟朋友說起在非洲的事。

Tā cháng gēn péngyǒu shuōqǐ zài Fēizhōu de shì.

He often talks about Africa with his friends.

2 美美一個人在臺灣。她想起越南的家人時，有點難過。

Měiměi yí ge rén zài Táiwān. Tā xiǎngqǐ Yuènán de jiārén shí, yǒudiǎn nánguò.

Meimei lives in Taiwan alone. Whenever she thinks of her family in Vietnam, she feels a little sad.

3 小李跟朋友談起找房子的事，朋友告訴他可以上網找。

Xiǎo Lǐ gēn péngyǒu tánqǐ zhǎo fángzi de shì, péngyǒu gàosù tā kěyǐ shàngwǎng zhǎo.

Xiao Li brought up with his friend the topic of renting an apartment and his friend told him he could search online.

 

Structures

Negation：

1 老闆在辦公室的時候，別說起薪水的事。

Lǎobǎn zài bàngōngshì de shíhòu, bié shuōqǐ xīnshuǐ de shì.

Don’t bring up the issue of salary while the boss is in the office.

2 他沒跟我談起結婚的事，所以我不能給他什麼建議。

Tā méi gēn wǒ tánqǐ jiéhūn de shì, suǒyǐ wǒ bù néng gěi tā shénme jiànyì.

He didn’t bring up the issue of marriage, so I was unable to give him any advice.

3 我以為他會告訴我旅行的事，可是今天他來家裡都沒聊起。

Wǒ yǐwéi tā huì gàosù wǒ lǚxíng de shì, kěshì jīntiān tā lái jiā lǐ dōu méi liáoqǐ.

I thought he was going to tell me about his travels, but when he came to my house today, he didn’t bring it up.

Questions：

1 中午的時候，她們是不是聊起昨天看的電影了？

Zhōngwǔ de shíhòu, tāmen shìbúshì liáoqǐ zuótiān kàn de diànyǐng le?

At noon did they chat about the movie they saw yesterday?

2 他又談起他從前的女朋友了？

Tā yòu tánqǐ tā cóngqián de nǚpéngyǒu le?

He talked about his ex-girlfriend, again?

3 我忘了我們是怎麼談起吃素的事了？

Wǒ wàngle wǒmen shì zěnme tánqǐ chīsù de shì le?

I forget how we got started talking about vegetarianism (or eating vegetarian food). (i.e., I forget how the topic of vegetarians/ vegetarian food came up.)