These are two very important (重要的 – zhòng yào de), very useful (有用 – yǒu yòng) characters when learning Chinese – 上 (shàng) and 下 (xià).

In Chinese, you will encounter these two characters very, very often, as they both have many meanings.  Let’s take a look at some of the many uses of these characters:

LOCATION –

To begin with, you can use 上 and 下 to describe the location of something.  Here are two examples:

书在桌子上 (shū zài zhuō zi shàng) – This translates to, “The book is on top of the table.”  In this case, 上 is used to show that something is on top of something else.  It can also be used to describe something that is above something else.

书在桌子下 (shū zài zhuō zi xià) – More often than not, these two characters serve as opposites, so in this case we have, “The book is under the table.”  As I’m sure you can guess, 下 is used to show that something is below, or under something.

Unless you live under a rock, you probably know about a little city called 上海 (Shàng hǎi).  The business center of China, the name of this modern metropolis actually translates to “on the sea.”  As Shanghai is split by the Huang Pu River (黄浦江 – Huáng pǔ jiāng), it is clear why this city has the name that it does.

TIME –

You can also use the characters 上 and 下 to describe the time (past or future).  These characters are used when talking about weeks and months:

上个星期 (shàng gè xīng qí) means “last week” and 下个星期 (xià gè xīng qí) means “next week.”

As you may have guessed by now, 上个月 (shàng gè yuè) means “last month” and 下个月 (xià gè yuè) means “next month.”

You also see these characters when talking about the time of day:

早上 (zǎo shàng) – early morning (literally “early on”)

上午 (shàng wǔ) – late morning (before noon)

下午 (xià wǔ) – afternoon

晚上 (wǎn shàng) – evening (literally “late on”)

RESPONSIBILITIES –

We all have to either go to class or work at some point in the day, and we can use 上 and 下 to talk about both class and work:

上班 (shàng bān) – go to work/begin work

下班 (xià bān) – finish work

上课 (shàng kè) – have class/begin class

下课 (xià kè) – finish class

OTHER USES –

While both 上 and 下 are very common characters in Chinese, you will probably hear and use 下 on a more regular basis.

One very common example is, “…. 一下,” which means to do something for a short time.  Here are a few phrases you might hear or say a lot in Chinese:

休息一下 (xiū xí yī xià) – rest for a short while

等一下 (děng yī xià) – wait for a short while

看一下 (kàn yī xià) – have a quick look

Basically, you can use the formula (Verb + 一下) to show that you will do something casually, or for a short time.

Now that you understand a bit more about these two very useful characters, keep an eye (and an ear) out for them when studying Chinese; you will surely find that you see them on a daily basis.