Mandarin: Exploring the town

When navigating any place, it is useful to know how to talk about different locations and modes of transportation.

To ask where someone is going in Mandarin, you can say:

你去哪儿？Nǐ qù nǎr (nǎ er)? – Where are you going?

For most places, you can answer in Mandarin with:

我去Wǒ qù – I’m going…

The exception to the above rule in Mandarin is ‘home’, for which you would say:

我回Wǒ huí – I’m going back…

So if you want to say you are returning home in Mandarin you would say:

我回家Wǒ huí jiā – I’m going back home

To ask how someone is going to get somewhere in Mandarin, you can say:

你怎么去？Nǐ zěn me qù? – How are you getting there?

There are three ways to respond to this question in Mandarin:

• 我坐Wǒ zuò – I take, for vehicles you sit in, eg the bus or a taxi

• 我骑Wǒ qí – I ride, for vehicles you sit on or across, eg a bike

• 我走着去Wǒ zǒu zhe qù – I walk there

For example, if you are going to get the bus, in Mandarin you would say:

我坐公交车Wǒ zuò gōng jiāo chē – I take the bus

Did you know?

Each mode of transport in Mandarin shares the final character 车chē (vehicle).

The Mandarin characters before this generally describe the vehicle in question, eg:

• 自zì (self) 行xíng (do or travel) 车chē (vehicle) – bike

• 公交gōng jiāo (short for public transport) 车chē (vehicle) – bus