"这里是你的家吗？"
Translation:Is this your home?
46 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
The sentence is using 这里 where I would expect to see 这个. Is 里 being used as a counter in the same way as 个? That would also explain the use of 是 rather than 在.
539
这里 = here (this place).
这个 = this one.
And just like English, "home" is an abstract location, rather than an item. (They sometimes seem to translate 家 as house, which is very bad).
The following sentences are valid:
这里是你的家吗？ Is here your home?
这个是你的房子吗？Is this your house?
你的家是这里吗？ Is your home here?
你的家在这里吗？ Is your home located here?
这里在你的家吗 is wrong. 在, as a verb, means "be located at". And "Is here located at your home" is also wrong in English.
I don't agree with the second, so called valid sentence.
It shouldn't be " is this your house" as it's implying that the house is seen and pointed at; however, the Chinese sentence uses " is... here ? " to imply a questioning of location where the house might not be seen or known..
- 635
I think it's because 家 jia1 is a place and not just an object. I think that for places, use 这里 zhe4 li3，那里 na4 li3，and 哪里 na2 li3 (rising tone instead of its original falling-rising tone because of the consecutive falling-rising tone of 里). Or the 儿 er2 alternatives.
Finally! We get to use 哪里 Nǎlǐ - Where; 这里 Zhèlǐ - Here; 那里 Nàlǐ - There
哪里/ 哪儿 Nǎlǐ/Nǎ'er : where
那儿/那边/ 那里 Nà'er/Nà biān/ Nǎlǐ: there, over there
这里/这儿 Zhèlǐ/Zhè'er : here, over here or even "there is"as in 这儿没有洗手间 [Zhè'er méiyǒu xǐshǒujiān = there is no bathroom(here)
Literally the Chinese would be: "This place/here is your home, (question)?" In English we could say "is here your home?" But it's award to have "here" as the subject, we'd prefer "is your home here?" but that would be "你的家在这里吗?" So while it's not quite a direct translation, "is this your home?" is probably the closest way to say this while keeping the same subject-object relationship.
They have the same meaning. 这里 and 这儿 are synonyms.
There are other examples: 哪儿、哪里 or 那儿、那里
Mainland standard Mandarin is based on Beijing speech, and Beijing is crazy about 儿.
In central and southern China, 这里 is more widespread, and it's standard in Taiwan Mandarin (written 這裡 there). I bet they all got it from the older, Nanjing-based standard.
That's not correct English. You could say "Is your house here?" but that might not be the best translation of this sentence.
To be honest id rather listen to english translations that are correct in the foreign grammar rather than English grammar. It helps me get used to sentence construction
这里 does not mean this - the phrase translates as is your home here? 这是你的房子吗 is, is this your house.
"Is this your house here?" Why won't it take that for an answer? The question actually has 这里 in it which is 'here', your answer doesn't.
@mornir - maybe. But given that we are trying to learn Mandarin and trying to associate word / phrase / sentences; it is not advisable to wrongly associate the given Chinese sentence with "Do you live here?" when there is no 住在 in the Chinese sentence.
@Willie - Why are you so surprised? Your question sounds like "This is your home? Really? A better way, I think, would be "Is this your home?"
Not a very common way to here this at all .这里 and 那里 is just not used in the sense but more so put at the end of the sentence to replace 吗. 你的家在这里 (here ) is used more then (there ) and (this) is used more then (that) .also they say it depends where you go in China which you will here more,这里 那里 or这儿 那儿 but i always here 这儿 and那儿 and they put it at the end .
@Reggie - if you replace 吗 with 这里 then you are changing the sentence from a question to a statement.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Confused.. 这 儿and 这里 before this lesson always meant here, and 这 by itself meant this. So consider this the translation should be something like: is our home here? Or without question : here is our home. I understand that the chinese sentence will look different in this case and 在 would be used in first one... But still... What is the rule makes 这里 to become " this" instead of “here"?
@Sky - read through other comments. Some excellent explanations.
But now I realise how confused English learners would be when they encounter sentences like "I have a cat" and "I have to go" and "I have a meal".
What does have exactly mean? Confusing... eh?
Yeah.. i always read all the comments before i write smth.. But probably i didn't get them, cause i still can understand this... :(
About "have" there is no confusion. If there is just have and a nout means you own smth. Have+to always means must to do smth. And here with chinese we have same two hierogliphs that began to mean different thing...
Read the comment by Celticfiddleguy one year ago.
You don't have confusion with "have"? "Have a meal" = Own a meal? Really? Good to know.
- 635
For proper English translations, it's this. But literally, the sentence uses here to indicate that your talking about a place instead of an observable object. (And not the ground, okay?) If you said, 这是你的家吗？ zhe4 shi4 ni3 de5 jia1 ma5? You might be talking about an object, maybe like a house. (The context might be that you're talking about a house. So, "Is this house your home?")
If you instead use 这里，you'd be talking about the place. So, literally, "Is here your home?" (It's not good English; don't use it unless you want to sound funny, and I mean either strange or entertaining.)
- 1519
i typed "is this place your home" which wasn't approved, i am reporting it, but if it really shouldn't be accepted, please explain.
- 635
For the sake of accuracy, I think it's because the word for place （地方 di4 fang1, I believe) does not exist in this sentence.
This sentence structure implies more of, "Your home is here?" Rather than, "Is your home here?" (That would more accurately be 你的家在这里吗？ni3 de5 jia1 zai4 zhe4 li3 ma5)
But for the sake of it, don't use this [English] sentence structure for this translation. "Is this your home" is not an accurate translation for the sentence above. (I believe it might be 这是你的家吗？zhe4 shi4 ni3 de5 jia1 ma5) Using "Is this your home" (or even "is this place your home") would shift the focus to an object instead of the location (here).
Can't we translate "jia" as "family"? "Jiaren" sounds more like "family member" for me.
- 635
Apparently, 家人 jia1 ren2 also means family member other than family, but to be more specific (though with naturality, I'm not sure), you apparently can use 家庭。
Yes, and rightly so.
There is no "This house" in the Chinese sentence.
My answer was "Is this your home?", but based on what I read here it should not have been accepted... Since 这里 means "here", the only correct answer should be "Is your home here?"