"在中国，汽车靠右边开。"
Translation:In China, cars drive on the right side.
16 Comments
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?
556
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.
May this character also imply "tend towards"?
- 556
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).
- 556
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?)
Cars drive themselves if they are the new self driving ones otherwise a driver drives.
