"在中国，汽车靠右边开。"

Translation: In China, cars drive on the right side.

[alanxoc3]

Well, at least cars are supposed to drive on the right side in China.......

[Keith_APP]

and supposed to be driving forward too...

[DestinationVoid]

But do they?

[Jocke190028]

They do though

[elmanisero777]

can someone explain to me what the point of 靠 is in this sentence? why not just say 汽车开在右边 instead?

[Keith_APP]

靠 here means "lean to". Of course a car is not a person but saying cars are driven leaning to the right is okay in Chinese, and has the same effect as saying 汽车开在右边.

[deactivated user]

May this character also imply "tend towards"?

[Keith_APP]

Just to make the reply more complete, when 靠 is used in an instruction, it means a request to move in that direction. e.g. when you are a passenger in a car and you hear the ambulance siren on your way, you can ask the driver "靠右!" so that the ambulance can pass through (in a left driving country).

[JOrlando3]

This makes sense, though, since you are actively moving toward the right. It seems that in this sentence, 在 and 靠 are actually interchangeable but it's difficult to explain. I just asked my friend, and she explained that it means lean, basically, but when I asked "but the cars aren't going toward the right, they are on the right already, so...?" she got frustrated really quickly. I have a feeling this might be like just needing to memorize prepositions in English...

[Milosh763575]

It is very funny how people get upset when some things are a bit hard to explain in a logical manner!

[Keith_APP]

If my understanding is correct "tend towards" would mean the car is actually straying to the right; then such meaning is not implied. 靠右 only means the relative position of the car is closer to the right margin rather than in the middle of the road; the driving direction is still straight ahead.

[alex917206]

"In China, you drive on the right side" or "In China, cars are driven on the right side" should be acceptable.

[RichardWrigley]

Ah, I understand the frustration with the limitation of acceptable translations. But we have to remember that this course is pretty new and will need a lot of refining yet. So I wish you the patience to keep hammering away at those reports, just like I do. (And remember the cost is only effort not money. Pretty good, eh?)

[JesusMendozaCEC]

I'm not sure why「开」is used. What's it's literal meaning here and why is it placed at the end of the sentence?

Does it mean "to drive/ to steer?"

[Keith_APP]

开 has other meanings than open, such as to switch on, to start, and to drive (a car, as in here).

[DanielLove617117]

Cars don't drive themselves, people drive cars. "In China, we drive cars on the right side."

[Ilya57484]

But but but... I always thought Hong Kong is part of China?

[c.elise.t]

❤❤❤❤ no!

[jamtintraders]

"In China, cars are driven on the right hand side"

[ruodan2]

"... cars are driven...." should be acceptable.

[StijnBosho]

The english would say thats the wrong side

[danielwanglearn]

in china, cars drive to the right