Expressing distance with "li"

Are we there yet? One of the ways to express distance is to use 离(lí). The word order might be a little tricky, but once you get it down, you'll be able to talk about distance with no problem!

Structure

The structure is:

Place 1 + 离 + Place 2 + Adv. + 近 / 远

So this pattern is normally used to simply express that one place is (not) close or (not) far from another place. Easy, right? It's learning the sentence pattern that usually trips learners up, because it doesn't feel like natural word order to a speaker of English.

Examples

• 我 家 离 公司 很 近 。 Wǒ jiā lí gōngsī hěn jìn. My house is close to my office.
• 美国 离 中国 很 远 。 Měiguó lí Zhōngguó hěn yuǎn. America is far from China.
• 我老家 离 北京 很 远。 Wǒlǎojiā lí Běijīng hěn yuǎn. My hometown is very far away from Beijing.
• 你家 离 超市 远 吗？ Nǐjiā lí chāoshì yuǎn ma? Is your house far away from the supermarket?
• 你们 公司 离 地铁站 近 不 近？ Nǐmen gōngsī lí dìtiě zhàn jìn bù jìn? Is your company close to the metro station or not?
• 你 的 大学 离 你女朋友 的 大学 远不远？ Nǐ de dàxué lí nǐnǚpéngyou de dàxué yuǎn bù yuǎn? Is your college far away from your girlfriend's?
• 那 个 酒吧 离 我 家 太 远 了 ， 我 不 想 去 。 Nà gè jiǔbā lí wǒ jiā tài yuǎn le, wǒ bù xiǎng qù. That bar is too far away from my house, I'm not going.
• 这 个 酒店 离 火车 站 比较 近 。 Zhè ge jiǔdiàn lí huǒchē zhàn bǐjiào jìn. This hotel is comparatively close to the train station.
• 我们 去 星巴克 吧， 离 这儿 比较 近 。 Wǒmen qù xīnbākè ba, lí zhèr bǐjiào jìn. Let's go to Starbucks.It's comparatively close to here.
• 你 离 我 远 点 儿 ！ Nǐ lí wǒ yuǎn diǎnr! Distance yourself from me further.

This sentence pattern is extremely common in everyday conversations when discussing distances.

Note that the final example is a command, and a commonly heard line. It's a somewhat atypical usage when compared with the others, because it uses two people rather than two places. The sentence means "distance yourself from me further," in other words, "stay away from me" or "don't come near me."

See also

• "From… to…" with "cong… dao…"

Sources and further reading

Books

• Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar (pp. 112 - 113) →buy
• Boya Chinese Elementary Starter 2 (博雅汉语初经起步篇) (p. 11) →buy
• Chinese: An Essential Grammar, Second Edition (pp. 154) →buy