Can someone explain the grammar for this sentence?

[苏格兰Boyo]

Hi, I'm an English native speaker and learning Mandarin.  Well more precisely Pinyin for now as I'm learning how to speak and listen.  Anyway can someone explain to me how the grammar for this sentence works:

 

qù nàlǐ zěnme zǒu?

 

I read it as literally

 

to go + there + how + to leave

 

I'm learning grammar from scratch and having trouble memorising words especially when qù and zǒu seem so similar.  Why are they both in the same sentence?  Any insight would be appreciated!  Thanks!  

[wushucrab20]

I think it would help to remember qu basically always means go / to go . Nali means there, so the combo qu nali means go there/ to go there .

 

zenme as you said literally means how, while zou means to walk, or to leave. The combination zenme zou is asking "how to get somewhere", or more literally "how do i walk" similar to, "what way should i walk or how do I go (to get there)?"

 

Basically anytime you want to ask for directions, especially walking on foot you can ask  qu _place___  zenme zou?  Hope that helps.

[AdamD]

Yeah. Chinese grammar is basically: <person> at <time> goes <somewhere> does <something>. If you're asking it as a question, it could be: <person> at <time> goes <somewhere> does what? This can also be applied to the means of getting there, which is what you've posted: Go <somewhere> how?

 

In other words, a word in a sentence can be replaced directly, turning it into a question.

 

In English terms, your whole question as a sentence might read: To get there, walk north. What you've got there, as a question, is that sentence with the means in question: To get there, how? More appropriately in English: How do I get there?

[StudyHSK_Michael]

You shouldn't get confused with qù and zǒu beacause

qù means: to go; go to (a place)

zǒu is short for zǒu lù 

zǒu means: walk

lù means: road

together zǒu lù means: walk; go on foot

 

In Chinese, there are many words that are called "separable words" for example

kāi chē: drive a car

shuì jiào: to sleep

 

With these words, we are allowed to drop the second character and it will not change the meaning.

kāi: drive a car

shuì: to sleep

 

So zǒu as I said is short for zǒu lù but the lù has been dropped because this is a "separable word"

 

Also, I highly recommend you learn characters and don't waste your time ignoring them. You put yourself at a great disadvantage, as you will struggle to catch up if you learn them at a later time, and you also make yourself illiterate. Being able to read in any language has a huge impact on the learning process. Research in extensive reading has shown that it accelerates vocabulary learning and helps the learner to naturally understand grammar. And learning characters is really not that hard if you don't focus on learning how to write them and instead focus on recognition. They are also very interesting and will teach you a lot about the culture. Just my two cents on that. Hope this helps

[陳德聰]

#3 seems to be confusing the situation more than helping.

 

qù means "go"

zǒu means "walk"

 

Like #2 says, "zěnme zǒu" is something of a set phrase used to ask for directions.

 

It may be easier to understand this question by separating it with a comma: "qù nàlǐ, zěnme zǒu?" / "To go to that place, how (does one) walk?"

[Shelley]

I have to agree with StudyHSK_Micheal, start learning characters now. If you decide to start later it will almost be like starting again. There is information in characters that can help avoid this sort of confusion.

 

Learning to just read them is ok, but I would recommend learning how to write characters as well, not necessarily because you want to write letters or novels in Chinese, but because it helps with remembering them and learning the correct stroke order can be useful if you have to use a paper dictionary.

 

Learning characters also helps with understanding homophones better than the pinyin can.

 

The explanation he has given is very helpful. You may also want to have a look at Chinese Grammar

 

Wiki.http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/

 

 

[Demonic_Duck]

I have to agree with StudyHSK_Micheal, start learning characters now. If you decide to start later it will almost be like starting again.

 

I agree with this.

 

There is information in characters that can help avoid this sort of confusion.

 

I disagree with this. The confusion has nothing to do with the characters or lack thereof, it has to do with insufficient understanding of Mandarin Chinese grammar and the various meanings of Mandarin Chinese words, which don't always map precisely to English words.

 

I'd say this is a "topic comment" construction (is it still correct to call it a "comment" when it's a question?), which is common in Mandarin.

 

Topic: 去那里 qù nàlǐ

Comment: 怎么走？ zěnme zǒu?

 

"Zǒu", in this case, maps roughly to English "go", or more idiomatically, to one of the many uses of "get" ("how do I get there?") The answer could be walking directions, but it could also involve taking other forms of transport, so I don't think it maps up precisely to "walk".

 

However, it does indeed mean "walk" in many instances, such as "zǒu lù".

 

It can also mean "leave", as in "wǒmen zǒu ba", or "tā yǐjīng zǒu le".

[Shelley]

"There is information in characters that can help avoid this sort of confusion." Perhaps I should have said "I find there is information in characters that can help avoid this sort of confusion.

 

I do find that the character clarifies the meaning for me. This might be because tones are my weakest link and if i see the pinyin and there is a tone mark I find it harder to recognise which XX with tone 4 is that? The character how ever is usually clear for me. I am aware that there are characters that have different meanings but are written the same, but context usually clears that up.

[Demonic_Duck]

I think you're absolutely right that seeing characters helps a lot with understanding, especially if the language used is fairly formal, and/or a good proportion of the words are just at the bleeding edge of your own language ability (i.e. ones which you've only just learned, or maybe even ones you haven't learned but which you can infer the meaning of).

 

However, in this case that clearly isn't the problem. The OP has seen "zǒu/走", correctly recognised it as the "zǒu/走" from "wǒmen zǒu ba/我们走吧" or some similar phrase, and incorrectly inferred that it means "leave" in all contexts.

[Shelley]

@Demonic_Duck I thought the OP was confused about qu and zou.

 

The OP said " qù and zǒu seem so similar."  what I was trying to say was that if the OP had learned 走 and how characters were constructed, knowing the foot component (indicating something to do with walking, running etc) might have helped to clarify the difference and the variety of meanings.

 

去 is to go and 走 is to walk. I know these are the simple meanings but suitable for a beginner to remember.

[Demonic_Duck]

FWIW, I think the most fundamental meaning of “走” is actually to run, with “行” being walk, it's just that they're not used like that in modern Mandarin (outside of 成语 etc.) I'd agree it's probably best to think of “walk” as the basic meaning for most purposes, though.

[imron]

Discussion on the etymology of 走 moved here.