Location words

Location words are characters which are attached to a noun to indicate where it is located in relation to something else. They can be divided into short versions, which seldom occur on their own and long versions, which can be found both attached to nouns and on their own. Following, the main location words.

SHORT VERSIONS
上 (shàng) – on, upon
你的裤子在床上。
nǐ de kùzi zài chuángshàng
[you ST pants to-be bed upon]
Your pants are on the bed.

下 (xià) – under
小狗在沙发下。
xiǎo gǒu zài shāfā xià
[small-dog to-be sofa under]
The puppy is under the sofa.

前 (qián) – in front of
学校前有公园。
xuéxiào qián yǒu gōngyuán
[school in-front-of there-is park]
There’s a park in front of the school.

后 (hòu) – behind
房子后有院子。
fángzi hòu yǒu yuànzi
[house behind there-is yard]
There is a yard behind the house.

里 (lǐ) – inside
你寻找的本子在背包里。
nǐ xúnzhǎo de běnzi zài bèibāo lǐ
[you to-look-for ST notebook to-be backpack inside]
The notebook you are looking for is in the backpack.

LONG VERSIONS
Long versions are formed by adding, to the short versions, the characters 边 (biān) or 面 (miàn) when you want to indicate positions and 部 (bù) or 方 (fāng) when you want to indicate a portion of an area. These four characters can also be added to the four cardinal directions 北 (běi - north) 南 (nán - south) 东 (dōng - east) 西 (xī - west), or to the words “right” (右 - yòu) and “left” (左 - zuǒ).

北京在中国北面。
běijīng zài zhōngguó běimiàn
[Beijing to-be China north]
Beijing is in the north of China.

Long versions can also act as object or as a determiner, which is linked to the noun that it determines through the particle 的.

上面有我的书房。
shàngmiàn yǒu wǒ de shūfáng
[above to-be I ST study]
There is my study above.

我更喜欢右边的房子。
wǒ gèng xǐhuān yòubiān de fángzi
[I more to-like right ST house]
I prefer the house on the right.

LOCATION WORDS WITH TIME VALUE

The characters 以 (yǐ) and 之 (zhī) attached to short versions such as 前 (qián) and 后 (hòu) provide information with time value, forming the expressions 以前/之前 (yǐqián/zhīqián) “before” and 以后/之后 (yǐhòu/zhīhòu) “after”.

她上飞机之前，打电话给我了。
tā shàng fēijī zhīqián, dǎ diànhuà gěi wǒle
[she to-get-on plane before, to-hit-telephone to I ASP]
She called me before she got on the plane.

NB: 打电话, literally “to hit the telephone”, means “to make a phone call”.

开始学习中文以后，才知道中文是这么美丽的语言。
kāishǐ xuéxí zhōngwén yǐhòu, cái zhīdào zhōngwén shì zhème měilì de yǔyán
[to-start to-study Chinese after, then-and-only-then to-know Chinese to-be such beautiful ST language]
Only after starting to study Chinese, I realized that Chinese is such a beautiful language.

Cover background picture by Melvin Tan (unsplash.com)