Vocabulary · 词汇 cíhuì

一起

yìqǐ

The small word that gathers people into one action and one place: eat together, live together, set out together. 一起 completes the 跟…一起 frame of company, and sits a hair from the chatty 一块儿, the formal 一同, and the counting 一共.

~5 min read

字源 zìyuán Etymology & Structure

字源洞见 zìyuán dòngjiàn · Etymological Insight

一 yī is "one", here meaning "as one, in a single body". 起 qǐ means "to rise, to get up, to start", built from 走 zǒu (to walk, in its lower form) beside 己 jǐ for sound, the picture of a body rising to move. Its noun-ish use is "a place, a spot, a rising point", which is the sense it lends here.

So 一起 reads literally as "in one place, rising as one", from which both meanings flow: gathered in one spot (在一起, "together in one place") and acting as one body (一起去, "go together"). The same 起 anchors a wide family, 起来 qǐlái (to get up), 起床 qǐchuáng (to rise from bed), 起点 qǐdiǎn (starting point), 一起 sitting among them as the everyday word for joint presence and joint action.

一起 yìqǐ Together

一起 (adverb) yìqǐ together; jointly

Adv 副词 fùcí

Before a verb, 一起 marks that two or more people act jointly: 我们一起吃饭 ("we eat together"), 一起努力 ("work hard together"). It is the natural word for shared activity, invitations, and teamwork. To propose doing something together, 一起 + verb + 吧 makes a warm suggestion: 一起去吧 ("let's go together").

周末我们一起去看电影吧。

Zhōumò wǒmen yìqǐ qù kàn diànyǐng ba.

Let's go see a movie together this weekend.

这件事我们一起想办法。

Zhè jiàn shì wǒmen yìqǐ xiǎng bànfǎ.

Let's figure this out together.

在一起 zài yìqǐ together (in one place); as a couple

短语 duǎnyǔ

With 在, 一起 marks being gathered in one place: 我们住在一起 ("we live together"), 把书放在一起 ("put the books together"). It also carries the romantic sense of being a couple: 他们在一起了 ("they're together now / they're dating"). Context tells the two apart, the literal "in one place" and the figurative "in a relationship".

他们在一起三年了。

Tāmen zài yìqǐ sān nián le.

They've been together for three years.

用法 yòngfǎ Patterns — Joint Action and Place

一起 in use · the core patterns 跟 / 和 + Person + 一起 + Verb , 跟朋友一起去 · go with a friend
一起 + Verb + 吧 , 一起吃饭吧 · let's eat together
在一起 , 住在一起 · live together (in one place)
Verb + 在一起 , 放在一起 · put together
一起来 / 一起去 , come / go together

跟 … 一起 gēn … yìqǐ together with (someone)

The standard frame for naming a companion. 跟 (or 和) introduces the person, 一起 seals the joint action, and the verb follows: 我跟家人一起过节 ("I spend the holiday together with family"). The 一起 can be dropped when 跟 alone suffices, but adding it makes the togetherness vivid. This pairing is one of the first sentence shapes learners master.

我想跟你一起学中文。

Wǒ xiǎng gēn nǐ yìqǐ xué Zhōngwén.

I'd like to learn Chinese together with you.

一起来 / 一起去 yìqǐ lái / yìqǐ qù come / go together

一起 attaches readily to 来 ("come") and 去 ("go") to invite shared movement: 一起来吧 ("come along, join us"), 我们一起去 ("let's go together"). It is the friendly core of any invitation, gathering the listener into the plan. 一起来 is also a warm "let's all do this" rallying call before a shared effort.

大家一起来唱这首歌！

Dàjiā yìqǐ lái chàng zhè shǒu gē!

Everyone sing this song together!

辨析 biànxī Together and In Total

辨析 biànxī · Distinguishing the Words

Three words all mean "together", split by register. 一起 yìqǐ is the neutral default, right in any setting, spoken or written. 一块儿 yíkuàir means exactly the same and swaps in freely, but it is more colloquial and more northern, marked by the Beijing-style 儿 ending: 一块儿去 ("go together"). 一同 yìtóng is the formal, slightly literary version, common in writing and ceremony: 一同前往 ("proceed together"). For everyday speech reach for 一起; brighten it to 一块儿 in casual chat, raise it to 一同 in formal prose.

The trap is 一共 yígòng, which looks like a sibling but does a different job. 一起 is about acting jointly; 一共 is about a final count, "in total, altogether": 一共五个人 ("five people in total"), 一共多少钱 ("how much altogether"). You cannot ask a bill with 一起. A simple test: if you can replace the word with "jointly", use 一起; if you can replace it with "in sum", use 一共. They share the 一 but part on meaning entirely.

成语 chéngyǔ Set Phrases

同心协力 tóng xīn xié lì to work together with one heart Literally "same heart, joined strength", to pull together toward a shared goal in full unity. It is the spirit behind 一起努力 ("work hard together") raised to its ideal: not just acting jointly, but acting as one mind and one effort.

齐心协力 qí xīn xié lì to make a concerted effort Literally "aligned hearts, joined strength", everyone striving together as one. A close cousin of 同心协力, stressing that all hearts are lined up in the same direction. The collective togetherness that 一起 points toward when a group acts as a team.

风雨同舟 fēng yǔ tóng zhōu to weather a storm in the same boat Literally "wind and rain, the same boat", to stand together through hardship, sharing the danger. From the Sunzi Bingfa, which notes that even old enemies in one storm-tossed boat will help each other. The deepest form of being 在一起, bound by shared trial.