to the right of . . .

[li3wei1]

Say you're looking at a picture of three people, facing the camera. On the left of the picture is A, on the right is B. In English, we would say, "A is on the left", or "A is to the left of B", but "A is on B's right". In Chinese, would we say "A在B的右边" or "A在B的左边"?

[anonymoose]

Well, if you think about it, "A is to the left of B" is a bit ambiguous, because we don't know whether you are talking from the perspective of the viewer, or from the point of view of B.

I think it would be similar in Chinese.

So A在左边 would be "A is on the left", and would probably be understood as, on the left of the photograph.

"A在B的左边" would be "A is to the left of B".

A less ambiguous way may be to say:

"A站着在B的左边" "A is standing to the left of B"

[li3wei1]

Thank you for your quick reply.

I don't see how adding 站着makes the sentence any less ambiguous.

Perhaps a different way of getting at this would be to ask, is there any clear way of saying 'A is on B's right-hand side' in Chinese, so that it's clear that we're talking about B's point of view?

[anonymoose]

从B的角度来看，A在其右边

[skylee]

在照片中A在左邊，B在右邊。

[malanting]

照片里左边的是A，右边的是B。

If you want to express "from B's point of view" then B的右手边是A。 （右手边 won't sound ambiguous）

I'm a native speaker, by the way.

[li3wei1]

Ah, that's what I'm looking for, thanks very much.