"在中国，汽车靠右边开。"
Translation:In China, cars drive on the right side.
28 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Well, at least cars are supposed to drive on the right side in China.......
Yeah in England they're supposed to drive on the left side. So in England left is right and in China right is right, am I wrong?
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?
1713
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.
- 1713
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).
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...
It is very funny how people get upset when some things are a bit hard to explain in a logical manner!
- 1713
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.
"In China, you drive on the right side" or "In China, cars are driven on the right side" should be acceptable.
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?)
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?"
- 1713
开 has other meanings than open, such as to switch on, to start, and to drive (a car, as in here).
Cars don't drive themselves, people drive cars. "In China, we drive cars on the right side."
- 591
"Cars drive on the right side" is obviously wrong. This means the cars are driving. Cars need to be driven by drivers.
Answer should be: Cars are driven (by drivers: can be omitted as it is understood) on the right side.
汽车靠右边开 汽车: cars 靠:towards 右边:right side 开:driven