"In China, cars drive on the right side."
Translation:在中国，汽车靠右边开。
5 Comments
I think 在中国， 汽车开车靠右边 should not only be accepted but is a more accurate translation. The accepted answer seems to translate to "In China cars are on the right". By excluding "开车" DL removes any mention of "driving". Also what's the purpose of 开?
562
It's the part of the idiomatic phrase for "to start [open] the car" in 开车.
Is it standard to put it at the end of the sentence in this context? do you know a name for this grammatical structure? I would like to research. Thanks
- 562
开车, like other compound verb-object phrases, can be positioned dependently on the meaning of the sentence. Here are few examples:
- 我没迟到，多亏了你开车送我。: I am not late. Thank you for the ride.
- 他开车比你小心: He drives more carefully than you.
For the second question, I do not know how to clearly write the response for this, but I can say all of that come from experience and understanding each basic component of the phrase. There is no grammatical structure that clearly explains the origin of 开车 since this is the part of the conversation natives often use everyday in their daily lives to discuss about driving. As long as the phrase is well-sound to the native, the phrase becomes the part of our daily vocabulary list. :)
