Expressing "to come from" with "laizi"

来自 (láizì) is used to express where something or someone comes from. Its meaning is similar to "to come from" in English.

Structure

Subj. + 来自 + Place

Examples

You can see that in some of the sentences below dealing with ideas and other abstract nouns, a translation like "originate from" may be more appropriate.

• 我 来自 中国 。 Wǒ láizì Zhōngguó.I come from China.
• 我 书 的 很 多 书 都 来自 日本 。 I lot of the books I read come from Japan.
• 我们 公司 的 客户 来自 美国 。 Our company's clients come from the USA.
• 我的 这个 想法 来自 生活 。 This idea of mine originated from daily life.
• 这 是 来自 政府 的 报告 。 This is a report from the government.
• 有 些 坏 习惯 来自 迷信 。 There are some bad habits that originate from superstition.
• 小明 的 成功 来自 他的 努力 和 认真 。 Xiao Ming's success stems from his hard work and earnestness.
• 听 了 来自 教授 的 建议 ， 我 决定 去 上海 。 After listening to the professor's suggestion, I decided to go to Shanghai.
• 我 和 Tom 虽然 来自 不同 的 国家 ， 但是 我们 是 好 朋友 。 Although Tom and I come from different countries, we're good friends.
• 我 设计 的 这 副 作品 来自 小王 的 启发 。 This piece I designed was inspired by Xiao Wang.

Sources and further reading

Books

• Anything Goes (无所不谈) (pp. 63, 107, 237) Anything Goes (无所不谈) →buy