Difference between revisions of "Expressing distance with "li""

Revision as of 01:59, 16 May 2012

In English when we talk about distance, we frequently use phrases like "far from here" and "close to your home." Both the "from" and the "to" in those two examples can be translated as 离 (lí) in Chinese, and can be expressed with a special grammar pattern.

Structure

The structure is:

Place1 + 离 + Place2 + 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

我家离大学很近。
美国离中国很远。
她家离我家不太近。
你离我远点。

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."

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) (pp. 11) →buy

@@ Line 33: / Line 33: @@
 == Sources and further reading ==
+=== Books ===
+* [[Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar]] (pp. 112 - 113) [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933330899/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=allset-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=1933330899 →buy]
+* [[Boya Chinese Elementary Starter 2 (博雅汉语初经起步篇)]] (pp. 11) [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/7301078617/ref%3das_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=allset-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=7301078617 →buy]