Verb + ขึ้น

Upward and Starting Up

Level 2

The word ขึ้น (khûen) literally means “to go up.” After a verb or adjective, it can indicate upward direction, the start or emergence of something, or an increase in degree. It does not always mean “suddenly” or “better.”

How It Works

The word ขึ้น (falling tone) is a versatile structure in Thai. Its meaning depends on how it is used:

  • Main Verb: It can stand alone to mean 'to board' (a vehicle) or 'to climb' (a mountain), such as ขึ้นรถ (get on the bus). It is also used as a transitive verb meaning 'to raise' or 'to increase', such as ขึ้นราคา (to raise the price) or ขึ้นเงินเดือน (to raise the salary).
  • Physical Direction: When following movement verbs, it indicates upward motion. It is often paired with มา (toward speaker) or ไป (away from speaker).
  • Onset and Emergence: It indicates the beginning of an action or the appearance of something new, such as a rash breaking out (ผื่นขึ้น) or a sudden thought (นึกขึ้นได้). When paired with มา as ขึ้นมา, it can mark an action or state coming into being. Suddenness depends on the surrounding words and context, as in the sudden-crying example (ร้องไห้ขึ้นมา).
  • Occurrence and Events: Two of the most common and essential compounds are เกิดขึ้น (to happen / to occur) and จัดขึ้น (to be held / to be organized), which are used frequently when talking about events.
  • Increased Intensity: When following a stative verb (adjective), it indicates an increase in degree or quantity. It means 'more' of that quality, such as ดีขึ้น (better), แพงขึ้น (more expensive), or ร้อนขึ้น (hotter). While a general deterioration in quality uses ลง (down), as in แย่ลง (getting worse), negative conditions that expand in scale or severity actually use ขึ้น, such as ป่วยหนักขึ้น (getting more severely ill) or อันตรายขึ้น (getting more dangerous).
  • Depending On: A highly common and important phrase is ขึ้นอยู่กับ (or simply ขึ้นกับ), which means 'to depend on'. This is a core usage that does not intuitively map to the English concept of 'up'.
  • Contrasts With - ลง: In some degree changes, ลง contrasts with increasing a quality, while ลง (down) can express downward movement. These contrasts do not make it an opposite for every compound: the occurrence and dependency expressions above have their own established meanings. For example, getting off a vehicle is ลงรถ, and moving downward is ลงไป.

Examples (6)

  1. เขาลุกขึ้นจากเก้าอี้

    He stood up from the chair.

    Word by Word: He rise up from chair

    Here, 'ขึ้น' indicates the physical upward movement of standing up.

  2. ฉันนึกขึ้นได้ว่าลืมกุญแจ

    I suddenly remembered that I forgot the keys.

    Word by Word: I think up can that forget key

    When used with 'think' (นึก), 'ขึ้น' implies the thought suddenly popped into the mind.

  3. ของแพงขึ้นมาก

    Things have become much more expensive.

    Word by Word: Thing expensive up much

    This shows that 'ขึ้น' marks an increase in intensity or quantity (more expensive).

  4. จู่ๆ เขาก็ร้องไห้ขึ้นมา

    Suddenly, he started crying.

    Word by Word: Suddenly he then cry up come

    This example describes the sudden start of crying. The surrounding sentence supplies the “suddenly” meaning; “ขึ้นมา” can mark onset or emergence without always meaning “out of the blue.”

  5. ผื่นขึ้นที่แขน

    A rash broke out on the arm.

    Word by Word: Rash up at arm

    Here 'ขึ้น' describes the emergence or appearance of something that was not there before.

  6. เกิดอะไรขึ้น

    What happened?

    Word by Word: Happen what up

    This is a common idiomatic expression where 'ขึ้น' indicates the emergence of an event.

Common Mistakes

  • Using 'khûen' for static comparisons between two people.

    เขาสูงขึ้นผม
    เขาสูงกว่าผม

    For the intended comparison “He is taller than me,” use “gwàa” (กว่า). The quality-change use of “khûen” instead means that someone is taller compared with before. Other uses of “khûen,” such as upward motion or occurrence, have different meanings.

  • Using the wrong word order in this occurrence construction.

    เกิดขึ้นเรื่อง
    เกิดเรื่องขึ้น

    For the intended statement “Something happened,” use the corrected sequence shown here. In this construction, the event noun belongs between the verb meaning “happen” and the final “khûen.” This is not a general rule that every object must precede “khûen.”

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Verb + ขึ้นLevel 2Upward and Starting Up

Learn This First

To understand 'Verb + ขึ้น', you need to be comfortable with Thai's serial verb construction where multiple verbs are placed in a row. It is also helpful to understand how other directional verbs (like 'go' and 'come') function as suffixes to main verbs, and how 'ขึ้น' is used with adjectives to show an increase in state.

Words in This Pattern

ขึ้นขึ้น