来着lái zhe is used in spoken Chinese at the end of a sentence to convey two separate meanings:
(1) To indicate that the action of the verb has only just taken place:
她刚才去学开车来着。
Tā gāng cái qù xué kāi chē lái zhe 。
She has just been for her driving lesson.
上午有人找你来着。
Shàng wǔ yǒu rén zhǎo nǐ lái zhe 。
Someone came to look for you just this morning.
他给谁打电话来着？
Tā gěi shuí dǎ diàn huà lái zhe ？
Who did he ring just now?
(2) To form questions which indicate that the speaker once had knowledge of the answer, but is unable to recall the information exactly at the moment of speaking:
你刚才说什么来着？
Nǐ gāng cái shuō shí me lái zhe ？
What did you say just now? (I can’t quite remember.)
你的电话号码是多少来着？
Nǐ de diàn huà hào mǎ shì duō shǎo lái zhe ？
What’s your telephone number again?
[1] Yip, P. C., Rimmington, D., Xiaoming, Z., & Henson, R. (2009). Basic Chinese: a grammar and workbook. Taylor & Francis.
