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.
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.”
Structure:
Place 1 + 离 + Place 2 + Adv. + 近 / 远
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 yuan) = The USA is far from China.
这个酒店离火车站很近。 (zhège jiǔdiàn lí huǒchēzhàn hěn jìn) = This hotel is very close to the train station.
Using 离 in a question:
Structure:
These two sentence patterns are extremely common in everyday conversations when discussing distances.
Place 1 + 离 + Place 2 (+ Adv.) + 近 / 远 + 吗？
Place 1 + 离 + Place 2 (+ 有) + 多远？
Note that in English, you can actually ask, “How close is it from here?” if the distance is obviously short. But in Chinese it’s just, “How far is it from here?”
Examples:
你家离超市远吗？ (nǐ jiā lí chāoshì yuǎn ma) = Is your house far away from the supermarket?
你的大学离你老家很远吗？(nǐ de dàxué lí nǐ lǎojiā hěn yuǎn ma) = Is your college very far away from your hometown?
你们公司离地铁站近吗？(nǐmen gōngsī lí dìtiězhàn jìn ma) = Is your company close to the metro station?
Expressing “Stay away from me” with 离:
你离我远点儿 ！ (nǐ lí wǒ yuǎn diǎnr) = Stay away from me!
It’s a somewhat atypical usage when compared with the others, because it uses two people rather than two places. The sentence literally means, “Distance yourself from me further.” In other words, “Stay away from me,” or “Don’t come near me.”
Post time: Mar-18-2020