Expressing distance with "li"

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

Structure

Unless you're talking about a very specific distance, you'll normally want to pair 离 (lí) with the adjective 近 (jìn) for "close," or 远 (yuǎn) for "far."

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. The USA is far from China.
• 我老家 离 北京 很 远。Wǒ lǎojiā lí Běijīng hěn yuǎn. My hometown is very far away from Beijing.
• 你家 离 超市 远 吗？ Nǐ jiā 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 dìtiězhàn jìn bù jìn? Is your company close to the metro station?
• 你 的 大学 离 你 老家 远 不 远？Nǐ de dàxué lí nǐ lǎojiā yuǎn bù yuǎn? Is your college far away from your hometown?
• 那 个 酒吧 离 这儿 太 远 了， 我 不 想 去。 Nà ge jiǔbā lí zhèr tài yuǎn le, wǒ bù xiǎng qù. That bar is too far away from here. I don't want to go.
• 这 个 酒店 离 火车站 很 近。 Zhè ge jiǔdiàn lí huǒchēzhàn hěn jìn. This hotel is very close to the train station.
• 我 不想 去 离 家 很远 的 地方 工作。 Wǒ bù xiǎng qù lí jiā hěn yuǎn de dìfang gōngzuò. I don't want to go work at a place very far away from home.

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

One final example which is a command, and a commonly heard line:

• 你 离 我 远 点 儿 ！ Nǐ lí wǒ yuǎn diǎnr! Distance yourself from me further.

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