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中文
Places & directions 100
100
phrases
Asking where
10
请问 opens all of these, and it is the single word that turns a demand into a question. Note the shape: 请问哪里有厕所 puts the place before the thing, literally "where is there a toilet". 有 is doing the work of "there is", and 附近有超市吗 uses the same frame for anything you hope exists nearby.
Directions
10
往 marks the direction you move in, and it comes before the verb: 往左拐, turn to the left. Chinese also treats floors as directions - 上楼 and 下楼 are literally "up the building" and "down the building", the same 上/下 pair you meet everywhere else. 在对面 is the one to memorise: across the road, opposite.
Along the way
10
Directions in Chinese are given in landmarks and counts rather than street names, because street names are long and nobody uses them: 到第二个路口 - to the second intersection - and 过了红绿灯 - past the traffic lights. 那条路不通 warns you off a dead end, and 我带你去 is the offer you will actually get more often than not.
Landmarks
10
Chinese addresses are hard to say aloud, so people navigate by what they can see. 星巴克那里 - "the Starbucks there" - is a real and common instruction. Note 三号出口: subway exits are numbered and naming one is the most precise meeting point a Chinese city offers. 公园的北门 works the same way, with compass points doing the work.
How far
10
远不远 is the verb-not-verb question, the most characteristic way Chinese asks yes-no questions: state the adjective, negate it, and the listener picks. The answers grade the distance for you - 很近的 means walk, 有点远 means think about it, 打车比较好 means the person has decided for you and they are probably right.
Inside a building
10
在几楼 - which floor - is the question you will ask most often inside a Chinese building, because shops stack vertically in ways they do not everywhere. Be aware that 一楼 is the ground floor, not the first floor above it, so Chinese numbering matches American usage and not British. 停车场在地下 puts parking underground, which it usually is.
Where things are
10
Position words go after the noun in Chinese, the opposite of English: 桌子上 is "table-on", not "on the table". Once that clicks, the whole set follows the same pattern - 椅子下面, 门很近. 在最上面 stacks two of them and still reads cleanly, which is a good sign you have the order right.
When you're lost
10
The sentence that gets you helped is 麻烦您指一下 - "could you point" - because pointing survives any gap in vocabulary. 请画个地图 asks for a drawing and is not as odd as it sounds; people will do it. 我第一次来 is worth adding to any of these: it explains your confusion and usually converts a direction into an escort.
Meeting up
10
老地方见 - "see you at the usual place" - is the phrase that marks a friendship: it only works when there is a usual place. The rest is the choreography of arrival, and note that 我快到了 is elastic in the same way 马上就来 is. If someone says it, allow ten minutes.
Maps and apps
10
你发个定位 - "send me your location" - has quietly replaced most of the vocabulary above it. Sharing a pin in WeChat is now the normal way to answer 在哪里见面, and 扫码进去 (scan the code to get in) covers everything from a restaurant menu to a building entrance. 定位不准 is the excuse everyone accepts.
Related categories
Greetings 100
Introductions 100
Numbers & time 100
Shopping 100
Eating & drinking 100
Getting around 100
Requests & offers 100
Feelings & opinions 100
中文