Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar

48 Talking about movement, directions, and means of transportation

48.1 Talking about ‘going’ and ‘coming’

Expressions used to talk about going and coming usually involve a preposition indicating ‘to,’ ‘from,’

or ‘toward,’ and a verb indicating ‘going’ or ‘coming.’ The structures used to indicate going and

coming are presented here. In Mandarin, the prepositional phrase always occurs before the verb.

C 14

Note the difference between 走 zǒu and 去 qù.

The verb 走 zǒu ‘to go’ is used with movement toward a direction.

The verb 去 qù is used with movement that terminates at a location.

48.1.1 talking about ‘going toward’ a direction

[往/向/朝 (direction)] 走

[wǎng/xiàng/cháo (direction)] zǒu

往东走。 朝南走。 向西走。

往東走。

Wǎng dōng zǒu. Cháo nán zǒu. Xiàng xī zǒu.

Go east. Go south. Go west.

To tell someone to go straight ahead, say:

一直走。

Yī zhí zǒu.

Go straight ahead.

To tell someone to go straight toward a direction, say:

[一直] [往/向/朝 (direction)]走

[yī zhí] [wǎng/xiàng/cháo(direction)]zǒu

or

[往/向/朝 (direction)][一直] 走

[wǎng/xiàng/cháo(direction)][yī zhí] zǒu

go straight toward(direction)

一直往北走。 or 往北一直走。

Yīzhí wǎng běi zǒu. Wǎng běi yīzhí zǒu.

Go straight north. Go straight north.