It is incorrect to say that a cough can cough up pneumonia. Cough is a common clinical symptom and can be caused by numerous causes, among which pneumonia is its common cause. The presence of pneumonia causes patients to develop coughs of varying degrees, rather than coughing leading to the formation of pneumonia. Some coughs can also be caused by non-infectious factors, such as cough variant asthma, gastroesophageal reflux cough, bronchopulmonary cancer, and eosinophilic bronchitis, which are non-infectious factors that do not lead to the formation of pneumonia. When a cough occurs, it is important to complete relevant tests, such as blood tests, chest X-ray or CT, and to consider the formation of pneumonia if a typical new inflammatory infiltrate is seen on chest imaging. Patients with pneumonia can gradually improve their cough with effective anti-infective treatment and cough suppression. Therefore, when coughing occurs, relevant investigations should be performed to clarify the cause as much as possible.