What you will be able to do
- Choose between 有 and 在 by what you are starting the sentence with.
- Put 对面, 旁边, 中间 and 附近 after the noun they locate.
- Give a route with 一直往前走 and 往右拐, and read one back.
- Measure a distance with A 离 B 远/近 and add how long it takes on foot.
本文中的中文词语都可以激活，查看词典释义。
Finding your way
and are the same fact told from two ends
Both sentences below are true at once, and neither can replace the other.
- Place + + thing — something exists there: 。 Fùjìn yǒu yí ge yínháng. — There is a bank nearby.
- Thing + + place — that thing is located there: 。 Yínháng zài chāoshì duìmiàn. — The bank is opposite the supermarket.
Choose by what you already know. If your listener does not yet know the bank exists, start with the place and use . If the bank is already in the conversation and you are placing it, start with the bank and use . The negatives follow the same split: and .
The question forms are the ones you will actually say out loud: ，？ Qǐngwèn, fùjìn yǒu yínháng ma? and ？ Yínháng zài nǎr?
Position words come after the noun
This is the reverse of English and of French, and it is the most reliable source of errors in the whole topic.
- chāoshì duìmiàn — opposite the supermarket
- xuéxiào pángbiān — next to the school
- shūdiàn hé yínháng zhōngjiān — between the bookshop and the bank
- zhuōzi shang — on the table; fángjiān li — in the room
Nothing is inverted, nothing is a preposition. is a noun meaning the facing side, so is literally the supermarket's facing side. may be inserted for a long or unfamiliar phrase — — and is normally left out in speech.
points the verb
wǎng means towards, and it stands before the verb with a direction in between.
- 。 Yìzhí wǎng qián zǒu. — Keep going straight ahead. yìzhí is straight, continuously.
- 。 Dào lùkǒu wǎng yòu guǎi. — Turn right at the junction. guǎi is to turn; wǎng yòu zhuǎn says the same.
- wǎng huí zǒu — go back the way you came.
Four directions to have ready: qián ahead, hòu behind, zuǒ left, yòu right.
measures a gap
A + + B + / states how far one place is from another. lí is not cóng: marks the start of a journey, marks the distance between two fixed points.
- ？ Dìtiězhàn lí zhèr yuǎn ma?
- ，。 Lí zhèr bù yuǎn, zǒulù shí fēnzhōng. — Not far, ten minutes on foot.
- 。 Wǒ jiā lí gōngsī hěn jìn.
For a route rather than a gap, use the pair ……: 。 Cóng zhèr dào huǒchēzhàn zuò dìtiě èrshí fēnzhōng.
Arriving
jiù attached to the second half of a sentence means and then that is it.
- 。 Guò mǎlù jiù dào le. — Cross the road and you are there.
- ，。 Yìzhí zǒu, kànjiàn yínháng jiù dào le.
And if it has gone wrong: 。 Wǒ zǒu cuò le. — I have gone the wrong way. cuò attaches to the verb as a result, which is why it comes after and not before it.
How to work through it
Two ways to say one thingread
Read the 有 and 在 section, then say each fact twice, once from each end: bank / supermarket, station / school, pharmacy / hotel. Notice that the sentence you choose depends on your listener, not on the map.
Ten words for a street cornervocabulary
Four of these are position nouns and go after what they locate; three are the machinery of a route. Learn 对面, 旁边 and 中间 inside a phrase — 超市对面 — never as bare cards.
Say a route in four movessentence
Give directions from where you are sitting to the nearest shop, using exactly four sentences: 一直往前走 / 到路口往…拐 / 在…对面 / 过马路就到了。 Then give the same route backwards.
Where, and how farquiz
Twelve items. Six put 哪儿 in the slot its answer will occupy; six attach a direction to a verb of motion — 走过去, 走回来, 上去, 下来 — and check that the direction follows the verb.
Stop a strangerspeaking
Open with 请问 every time. Ask for a bank, a metro station and a pharmacy; each time, follow the answer with 离这儿远吗？ and 走路要多长时间？ Repeat the directions back before you say 谢谢.