Recalling the recent with 来着

Structure Clause + 来着

来着 (láizhe) goes at the END of a colloquial sentence, about something that just happened or, especially, that you’re trying to RECALL: "what was it…?, how was it…?". 他叫什么来着？ = "what was his name again?". It gives that "on the tip of my tongue" feel. Recent past only.

Examples

你nǐ刚gāng才cái说shuō什shén么me来lái着zhe？
What were you just saying?
他tā叫jiào什shén么me来lái着zhe？
What was his name again?
我wǒ们men在zài哪nǎ儿r见jiàn过guò来lái着zhe？
Where was it we’d met before?

Levels are indicative: they follow the standard Chinese Grammar Wiki (AllSet Learning) progression, not an official HSK 3.0 mapping. We never assign levels by eye.

This point and the other 370, with audio on every example, inside Wanyu.