37.1 Demonstrative Expressions for Locations II

Note that some of the expressions below have more than one pronunciation. For these expressions, we will only use the highlighted pronunciations in this book. You can focus on them first and learn the other pronunciations later.

In Grammar and Vocabulary 26.2, we learned that we can use 呢 ni1 / nei1 and 嗰 go2 to form demonstrative expressions to refer to a specific location based on its distance from us. Here are the expressions we learned previously:

In this lesson, we will sometimes refer to a specific area based on its distance from us. We combine 呢 ni1 and 嗰 go2 with 頭 tau4 to mean ‘this area’ and ‘that area’. 頭 tau4 means ‘head’ in other contexts, but it doesn’t express this meaning here.

To refer to the side of a place, we can put 呢邊 ni1 bin6 (‘this side’) or 嗰邊 go2 bin6 (‘that side’) after the place. We usually use 呢 ni1 if we are currently at the place, and 嗰 go2 if we are not currently at the place. Note that the actual meaning will often be the area of a place.

To refer to the area of a place, we can put 呢頭 ni1 tau4 or 嗰頭 go2 tau4 after the place. We use 呢 ni1 if we are currently at the place and 嗰 go2 if we are not currently at the place.

We can combine 邊 bin1 (‘which’) with 邊 bin6 / bin1 (‘side’) or 面 min6 (‘side’) to mean ‘which side’. Note that we usually say 邊邊 bin1 bin6 / bin1 bin1.

We can combine 邊 bin1 (‘which’) with 頭 tau4 to form ‘which area’.

Culture

The expression 嗰頭近 go2 tau4 kan5 (‘that area’ + ‘close’) means ‘to be near death’.