Please, Mandarin words: Chē, yào & zuò?

Question

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Please help with clarification.

I know "Chē" means "Car" or "vehicle", but does it have that meaning in the following sentence?:

"Zhè lù chē dào Yíhéyuán ma?"

You see, it seems like "Chē" Is being used as a verb that is getting to (dào) the summer palace (Yíhéyuán).

Question:

A）Is "chē" really the correct word to use to describe the verb action? Can I really use "chē" as a verb when it is actually a noun??

ALSO, in the following sentence, is "yào" the correct word?:

Nǐ xiān zuò zhè lù chē ránhòu yào huànchē.

I think instead of "yào" I should use the word "zuò" because "zuò" is a verb "to do" and the "huànchē" ("car exchange" or "transfer") is what is actually being done?

B) Therefore, do you agree that "zuò" instead of "yào" is the correct word? If not, why not?

Thank you very much.

Answer 1

yes, chē = 车 and is commonly translated into car or vehicle, but I think 车 = vehicle is more appropriate. For eg.

lù = 路 = road,

chē = 车 = vehicle ;

lù chē = 路车 road vehicle = bus (in mainland China)

mǎ chē = 马车 = horse vehicle = horse-driven carriage

huǒ chē = 火车 = fire vehicle = train

qì chē = 气车 = gas vehicle = car

So, in your sentence, 车 is a noun :-

Zhè = this

lù chē = road vehicle = bus

dào = get to; go to

Yíhéyuán = Summer Palace

ma = (question marker)

lit. translation: This bus goes to Summer Palace ? (just like echo question in English, with rising intonation).

In 'std' question format, one would ask "Does this bus go to Summer Palace?"

Now, can chē be used as a verb ? Yes, for eg.

车衣服 = sew with a sewing machine. But again, in your sentence chē is a noun.

For your second sentence :- Nǐ xiān zuò zhè lù chē ránhòu yào huànchē.

It doesn't sound natural to me. It seems like a cross between a conditional and an imperative sentence.

Nǐ = 你 = you

xiān = 想 = wish to ; want to

zuò = 坐 = sit; take (as in 'go by')

zhè lù chē = this bus

ránhòu = 然后 = then

yào = need; have to

huàn = 换 = change; exchange

chē = 车 = vehicle

huànchē = change buses. (as we have in the earlier part of the sentence established the kind of vehicle.)

Lit. translation: You want to take this bus then have to change buses.

Either we have an imperative sentence like : Take this bus then change buses (at wherever). = zuò zhè lù chē ránhòu (at wherever) huànchē.

or a conditional: If you want to take this bus, you have to change buses (at wherever) = rú guǒ nǐ xiān zuò zhè lù chē ,nǐ yào (at wherever) huànchē.

Better if you say : If you take this bus, you'll have to change buses (at wherever) = rú guǒ nǐ zuò zhè lù chē ,nǐ yào (at wherever) huànchē.

rú guǒ = 如果 = if

Answer 2

My first language is Chinese. So I think I can help. In Chinese, we don't care as much about the noun, verb, or the sentence structure as that in English.



for A, "Zhè lù chē dào Yíhéyuán ma?"

Zhè lù means "This"

chē means "Vehicle". I think it means "bus" in this sentence. chē is just simply the general term for all the vehicles.

dào is the verb here. it means "get to" literally. it should be "is getting to" or "is going to" in this sentence. You see, this is the difference between the two language. There is no "is" in this sentence. But since there is no change of verb according to different tense in Chinese, "dào" is the one that means "is going to". In Chinese, verb remains the same in all tenses. The tense is expressed by changing the adverb only.

Yíhéyuán is the "Summer Palace".

ma? is the adverb. It means this is a question. For English, Verb should be changed accordingly. But in Chinese, verb and word sequence remains the same. the only change is by adding adverb.

So for the whole sentence, it would be "Is this bus going to the Summer Palace?"



For B, yào is the correct word. But you can also omit that. zuò is not the correct word here.

yào means "need"

huànchē means "change bus" if translated directly. It can be translated as "transfer" as well.

Hence this sentence is "need to change bus" or "need a transfer".

zuò means "sit" in Chinese. It should be translated as "take" here. So take change bus or take a transfer would not make sense in Chinese. However, you may say take another bus, which would be zuo(4) ling(4) yi(1) liang(4) che(1).



i hope I hit the point that troubles you. :)

Answer 3

Hmmmmm. I'm only gonna help with the first one because I'm not sure on all of the second one. Che isn't the verb, dao is. I suppose you mean dao like 'way' or as in 'cong...dao'. Remember in Chinese most things can be used as a verb, it doesn't really matter because you don't have to conjugate and you'll be understood. Here I think you're saying 'does this coach go to the Summer Palace?' It should be 'zhe liang luche dao yiheyuan ma?' because we always need the measure word. Hope that helped!

Answer 4

It means "Is this bus line goes to the Summer Palace".

And the ordinary chinese word is

“这路车到颐和园吗？”