ていく vs てくる – The Difference between teiku and tekuru made simple

The Japanese verb 来くる means come and 行いく means go. In Japanese, these verbs come after other verbs in the て-form to represent a starting or ending point. Let’s take a closer look.

The Meaning of ていく vs てくる

Basically, you can think of ていく meaning from this point and てくる as up to this point.

The two sentences above perfectly illustrate the difference between ていく vs てくる. If you remember the difference between these two sentences then in most situations you should be fine.

There are situations though where either can be used. The basic difference is just that てくる feels more personal than ていく. Also, with てくる the emphasis is on the beginning of the process while ていく is on after the process starts.

Resources

• てくる – Weblio 
• ていく – Weblio