26.3 Location Expressions I

We can use the location expressions below to refer to different locations. Most of them end with 邊 bin6 / bin1 (‘side’) or 面 min6 (‘side’). 邊 bin is usually more often pronounced with Tone 6 (bin6) nowadays, except in the words for ‘left’, ‘right’, ‘lefthand side’ and ‘righthand side’, where 邊 bin is still commonly pronounced with both Tone 6 (bin6) and Tone 1 (bin1).

For expressions with more than one pronunciation, we will only use the highlighted pronunciations (the ones with bin6) in this book. You can focus on them first and learn the other pronunciations later.

We can add the adverb 最 zeoi3 (‘most’) before these location expressions to indicate the furthest of a side.

When we add 最 zeoi3, we can optionally omit the word 邊 bin6 / bin1 or 面 min6.

In the vocabulary list, these location expressions are labeled as both nouns and postpositions. We will learn when these location expressions are postpositions in later lessons.