Level 2 · Elementary
Distance with 离
A + 离 + B + 近 / 远 · Traditional: A + 離 + B + 近 / 遠
离 (lí) measures the gap between two places: 我家离学校很近 "my home is close to school" — literally "my home from school very close".
Use it with 远 (far), 近 (close), or an actual distance/time: 从我家到学校要二十分钟. Note 离 is static distance; for movement "from A to B", use 从…到….
Examples
我家离学校很近。
我家離學校很近。
wǒ jiā lí xué xiào hěn jìn
My home is close to the school.
北京离上海很远。
北京離上海很遠。
běi jīng lí shàng hǎi hěn yuǎn
Beijing is far from Shanghai.
你家离这里远吗？
你家離這裡遠嗎？
nǐ jiā lí zhè lǐ yuǎn ma
Is your home far from here?
商店离我家不远。
商店離我家不遠。
shāng diàn lí wǒ jiā bù yuǎn
The store isn't far from my home.
Related grammar points
Practice this pattern in graded stories like A Student's Morning (Part 1), An Engineer's Morning (Part 1), A Day’s Journey from Village to Suburbs inside the Literate Chinese app.
