{"id":12278,"date":"2016-06-29T09:00:36","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T13:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=12278"},"modified":"2017-07-10T17:26:52","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T21:26:52","slug":"location-words-in-chinese-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/location-words-in-chinese-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Location Words in Chinese (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In case you missed the first post about location words in Chinese<\/a>, go back and read that before continuing. Hopefully, those of you who did read it also tried the practice. Here are the answers for those before we get started:<\/p>\n

1. Where’s my book? On the sofa.
\n\u6211\u7684\u4e66\u5728\u54ea\u91cc? \u5728\u6c99\u53d1\u4e0a
\nw\u01d2 de sh\u016b z\u00e0i n\u01ce l\u01d0? z\u00e0i sh\u0101 f\u0101 sh\u00e0ng<\/h3>\n

2. Where are they? In the car.
\n\u4ed6\u4eec\u5728\u54ea\u91cc? \u5728\u6c7d\u8f66\u91cc\u9762
\nt\u0101 men z\u00e0i n\u01ce l\u01d0? z\u00e0i q\u00ec ch\u0113 l\u01d0 mi\u00e0n<\/h3>\n

3. Where’s the post office? Next to the bank.
\n\u90ae\u5c40\u5728\u54ea\u91cc? \u5728\u94f6\u884c\u65c1\u8fb9
\ny\u00f3u j\u00fa z\u00e0i n\u01ce l\u01d0? z\u00e0i y\u00edn h\u00e1ng p\u00e1ng bi\u0101n<\/h3>\n

4. Where’s the dog? Outside.
\n\u72d7\u5728\u54ea\u91cc? \u5728\u5916\u9762
\ng\u01d2u z\u00e0i n\u01ce l\u01d0? z\u00e0i w\u00e0i mi\u00e0n<\/h3>\n

5. Where’s Tianjin? South of Beijing.
\n\u5929\u6d25\u5728\u54ea\u91cc? \u5728\u5317\u4eac\u5357\u8fb9
\nti\u0101n j\u012bn z\u00e0i n\u01ce l\u01d0? z\u00e0i b\u011bi j\u012bng n\u00e1n bian<\/h3>\n

How Location Words Are Used<\/h2>\n
\"With

With my students in class.<\/p><\/div>\n

In Chinese, location words may be used as a subject, object, attributive, or center-word. Let’s take a look at an example of each, starting with the location word being used as the subject or object:<\/p>\n

In the school there are many students.
\n\u5b66\u6821\u91cc\u9762\u6709\u5f88\u591a\u5b66\u751f
\nxu\u00e9 xi\u00e0o l\u01d0 mi\u00e0n y\u01d2u h\u011bn du\u014d xu\u00e9 sh\u0113ng<\/h3>\n

The restaurant is next to the supermarket.
\n\u996d\u5e97\u5728\u8d85\u5e02\u65c1\u8fb9
\nf\u00e0n di\u00e0n z\u00e0i ch\u0101o sh\u00ec p\u00e1ng bi\u0101n<\/h3>\n

How do you think you could flip these sentences around? What I mean is, try to make the location word the object in the first one and make it the subject in the second. Take a minute and try it before looking down at the answer!<\/p>\n

There are many students in the school.
\n\u6709\u5f88\u591a\u5b66\u751f\u5728\u5b66\u6821\u91cc\u9762
\ny\u01d2u h\u011bn du\u014d xu\u00e9 sh\u0113ng z\u00e0i xu\u00e9 xi\u00e0o l\u01d0 mi\u00e0n<\/h3>\n

Next to the supermarket there’s a restaurant.
\n\u8d85\u5e02\u65c1\u8fb9\u6709\u996d\u5e97
\nch\u0101o sh\u00ec p\u00e1ng bi\u0101n y\u01d2u f\u00e0n di\u00e0n<\/h3>\n

Either way is correct, but it’s always good to learn both! Now let’s take a look at some other examples where we can use the location word as an attributive or as a center-word:<\/p>\n

the car outside
\n\u5916\u9762\u7684\u6c7d\u8f66
\nw\u00e0i mi\u00e0n de q\u00ec ch\u0113<\/h3>\n

outside of the car
\n\u6c7d\u8f66(\u7684)\u5916\u9762
\nq\u00ec ch\u0113 de w\u00e0i mi\u00e0n<\/h3>\n
\"Do

Do you mean the car outside, or outside of the car?<\/p><\/div>\n

Can you notice the differences between the two examples above? In the first one where the location word is used as an attributive, you must add the character\u00a0\u7684. This example means “the car which is outside.” In the second one, where the location word is used as a center-word,\u00a0\u7684 is optional and is more often omitted. A few small changes, but a big difference in meaning – you wouldn’t want to talk about “the car that’s outside” when you’re really trying to say that something is “outside of the car.” Take a look at another example to better understand the difference:<\/p>\n

the back of the room
\n\u623f\u95f4(\u7684)\u540e\u8fb9
\nf\u00e1ng ji\u0101n (de) h\u00f2u bian<\/h3>\n

the room in the back\/the room behind
\n\u540e\u8fb9\u7684\u623f\u95f4
\nh\u00f2u bian de f\u00e1ng ji\u0101n<\/h3>\n

Look at how versatile location words are! You can use them in so many ways. Just keep practicing them and pay attention to how they’re used when you talk to people, watch TV, or read.<\/p>\n

Simplification<\/h2>\n

Chinese may seem like a complicated language, but people love simplifying things. Chinese people love omitting characters to make shorter, more succinct phrases. This happens very often when dealing with location words. As I mentioned in the first post, the \u9762\uff0f\u8fb9 placed at the end is very often dropped. Also, as you saw in some of the examples above, \u7684 is often dropped as well. Let’s look at some examples of how we can simplify the location:<\/p>\n

\u684c\u5b50\u7684\u4e0a\u8fb9 – \u684c\u5b50\u4e0a
\nzhu\u014d zi de sh\u00e0ng bian – zhu\u014d zi sh\u00e0ng
\n(on the table)<\/h3>\n

\u5e8a\u7684\u4e0b\u9762 – \u5e8a\u4e0b
\nchu\u00e1ng de xi\u00e0 mi\u00e0n – chu\u00e1ng\u00a0xi\u00e0
\n(under the bed)<\/h3>\n

\u80cc\u5305\u7684\u4fe9\u9762 – \u80cc\u5305\u91cc
\nb\u00e8i b\u0101o de li\u01ce mi\u00e0n – b\u00e8i b\u0101o l\u01d0
\n(in the backpack)<\/h3>\n

\u94f6\u884c\u7684\u94b1\u8fb9 – \u94f6\u884c\u524d
\ny\u00edn h\u00e1ng de qi\u00e1n bi\u0101n – y\u00edn h\u00e1ng qi\u00e1n
\n(in front of the bank)<\/h3>\n

\u95e8\u53e3\u7684\u5317\u8fb9 \uff0d \u95e8\u53e3\u5317
\nm\u00e9n k\u01d2u de b\u011bi bian – m\u00e9n k\u01d2u b\u011bi
\n(north of the entrance)<\/h3>\n

It should be noted that you don’t simplify a few location words – \u5de6 (left) and \u53f3 (right) both need to have either \u9762\uff0f\u8fb9 attached, \u5bf9\u9762 (opposite) and \u65c1\u8fb9 (next to) always show up just like that, and \u4e2d\u95f4 (in the middle) is a loner and a special case.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wow – that’s a lot of grammar for a few days! Hopefully now you have a better idea of how to use location words in Chinese. It may seem complicated, but once you learn the basics and start using them, you’ll realize it’s really pretty easy. The fact that you can almost always simplify things is nice, and doing so doesn’t make you sound lazy; rather, it makes you sound like more of a fluent speaker because that’s how people really talk! So get out there, speak Chinese, and describe locations!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

In case you missed the first post about location words in Chinese, go back and read that before continuing. Hopefully, those of you who did read it also tried the practice. Here are the answers for those before we get started: 1. Where’s my book? On the sofa. \u6211\u7684\u4e66\u5728\u54ea\u91cc? \u5728\u6c99\u53d1\u4e0a w\u01d2 de sh\u016b z\u00e0i n\u01ce…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":12282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[272723,8894,69375,451894,451896,13464,69374,451895,451893,127571,127248],"class_list":["post-12278","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beginner-chinese","tag-chinese","tag-chinese-grammar","tag-chinese-location-words","tag-describing-location-in-chinese","tag-easy-chinese","tag-learn-chinese","tag-location-in-chinese","tag-location-words-in-chinese","tag-mandarin","tag-speak-chinese"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12278"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13481,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12278\/revisions\/13481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}