11.1 The Verb 住 zyu6 (‘to live’)

In Grammar and Vocabulary 7.2, we learned to use the preposition 喺 hai2 (‘in, on, at’, also pronounced as 响 hoeng2) to indicate where an activity takes place. We also learned that we put the prepositional phrase with 喺 hai2 before the verb we want to modify.

The verb 住 zyu6 means ‘to live’ in the sense of ‘to reside’. It is a special verb. We put the prepositional phrase with 喺 hai2 after it, instead of before it.

We put the prepositional phrase after the aspect particle if there is one.

We can still put the prepositional phrase before 住 zyu6 if we want to put emphasis on the location.

The verb 住 zyu6 can also mean ‘to live in’. We can put the location right after 住 zyu6 without 喺 hai2.