Grammar · 语法 yǔfǎ

离

lí

The word that measures a gap. 离 marks how far one thing stands from another in space or in time, the coverb behind every "how close, how far". Beneath it lies the verb of parting: to leave, to separate, to be apart.

~5 min read

字源 zìyuán Etymology & Structure

字源洞见 zìyuán dòngjiàn · Etymological Insight

离 lí (traditional 離) carries the 隹 zhuī radical, the short-tailed bird, on its right. The traditional form pictured catching a bird in a net, and the character early on took the meaning "to be caught and then to depart, to part from". Its settled sense became "to leave, to separate, to be apart", and from that the spatial coverb "away from, at a distance from".

The verb of parting runs through a family of words about separation: 离开 líkāi (to leave), 离别 líbié (to part, to bid farewell), 分离 fēnlí (to separate), 离婚 líhūn (to divorce), 距离 jùlí (distance). The coverb 离 in 我家离学校很近 ("my home is near the school") is the same parting word, now cooled into a neutral measure of the gap between two points. 离 is also one of the eight trigrams of the Yijing, where it stands for fire, but the everyday word is the coverb of distance.

离 lí Distance and Leaving

离 (coverb) lí away from; at a distance from

介词 jiècí

The everyday use: 离 sets a reference point and measures the gap to it. A 离 B + 远/近 states how far apart two places are: 我家离这儿很近 ("my home is close to here"). The same frame measures time toward a point: 离春节还有一个星期 ("there's still a week until Spring Festival"). 离 always names the point you measure from, not a path or destination.

火车站离机场远不远？

Huǒchēzhàn lí jīchǎng yuǎn bù yuǎn?

Is the train station far from the airport?

离下班还有半个小时。

Lí xiàbān hái yǒu bàn ge xiǎoshí.

There's still half an hour until I get off work.

离 (verb) lí to leave; to part from; to separate

动词 dòngcí

The original verb sense, "to part, to leave". Rarely bare in modern speech, it lives in compounds: 离开 ("to leave, depart from"), 离别 ("to part, say goodbye"), 离婚 ("to divorce"), 分离 ("to separate"), 脱离 ("to break away from"). The thread is always two things that were together now coming apart.

他大学毕业后就离开了家乡。

Tā dàxué bìyè hòu jiù líkāi le jiāxiāng.

After graduating he left his hometown.

用法 yòngfǎ Patterns — How Far, How Long

离 in use · the core patterns A 离 B + 远 / 近 , 我家离公司很近 · home is near the office
A 离 B + 有 + Distance , 离这儿有三公里 · three km from here
离 + Time Point + 还有 + Duration , 离考试还有三天 · three days until the exam
离 + 不 + 远 / 近 , 离得不远 · not far away
离开 + Place , 离开北京 · leave Beijing (the verb sense)

A 离 B 远 / 近 A lí B yuǎn / jìn A is far / near from B

The signature distance frame. A is the thing located, B the reference point, and 远 ("far") or 近 ("near") states the gap: 学校离我家很近 ("the school is close to my home"). To ask, use 远不远 or 多远 ("how far"): 你家离这儿多远？("how far is your home from here?"). Note that B is the fixed landmark you measure from.

你家离地铁站近吗？

Nǐ jiā lí dìtiězhàn jìn ma?

Is your home close to the subway station?

离 + 时间点 + 还有 lí + time + hái yǒu until (a point in time)

离 measures distance in time as well as space. Naming a future point, then 还有 ("there still is") plus a span, counts down to it: 离新年还有两个星期 ("there are still two weeks until New Year"), 离上课还有五分钟 ("five minutes until class"). It is the natural way to say "how long until" something.

离飞机起飞还有一个小时。

Lí fēijī qǐfēi hái yǒu yí ge xiǎoshí.

There's still an hour until the plane takes off.

辨析 biànxī 离 · 从 · 到

辨析 biànxī · Distinguishing the Words

Three coverbs deal with points in space and time, and they do different jobs. 从 cóng marks a starting point of movement, "from", and travels with a path: 从家到公司 ("from home to the office"), 从早到晚 ("from morning till night"). 到 dào marks the end point reached, "to, until": 走到门口 ("walk to the door"), 等到明天 ("wait until tomorrow"). 离 lí marks neither start nor end but the gap between two fixed points, "away from": 离家很远 ("far from home"), 离天黑还早 ("still early before dark").

A clean test is the word that follows. After 从 you expect a verb of motion and often a matching 到 ("from… to…"). After 离 you expect 远, 近, or a measured distance or duration, never a path. So "I come from Beijing" is 从北京来 (start of a journey), while "far from Beijing" is 离北京很远 (a static gap). And where 到 says you reach a point, 离 says how much still lies between you and it: 到八点 ("until eight, arriving at eight") versus 离八点还有十分钟 ("ten minutes short of eight"). Keep 从 for origins, 到 for destinations, 离 for the distance in between.

成语 chéngyǔ Set Phrases

离乡背井 lí xiāng bèi jǐng to leave one's native land Literally "to leave the village and turn one's back on the well", to go far from home, often driven by hardship. The 井 (well) stands for the home community that gathered around shared water. Here 离 is the verb of parting at its most poignant, leaving the place one belongs to.

悲欢离合 bēi huān lí hé sorrows and joys, partings and reunions Literally "grief, joy, parting, union", the full arc of human fortune in four characters. 离 (parting) and 合 (reunion) form the pair at its heart, the comings and goings of a life. From a famous Song lyric by Su Shi on the moon and human separation.

形影不离 xíng yǐng bù lí inseparable as form and shadow Literally "form and shadow do not part", two who are always together, never apart. Here 不离 ("not parting") is 离 turned to the negative, the opposite of separation. The warm image of constant closeness, the very thing distance and parting undo.