(jiē shàng) - on the street, in the street, out on the streets in Mandarin
jiēshàngTraditional: 街上
Translation
on the street, in the street, out on the streets
Word origin
A place word made from 街 (jiē, street) plus the locative suffix 上 (shàng, on), the standard way Chinese turns a noun into a location.
- Origin
- compound
- Root
- 街 (jiē, street) + 上 (shàng, on, locative suffix)
Stroke order
街
上
Examples
。
There are a lot of people in the street.
。
We walked along the street for a long time.
。
The shops on the street have all closed.
。
He ran into an old friend in the street.
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The street is very quiet at night.
Chinese nouns are not locations until you make them one. 街 on its own is the street as a thing; 街上 is the street as a place you can be, walk down, or see people in. The same suffix builds 桌上, 车上, 世界上.
Because 街上 is already a place word it slots straight in after 在: 在街上买东西, 在街上等我. Leaving off the 上 sounds unfinished to a native ear, the way "I was at street" does in English.
The trap is assuming 上 means physically on top. Here it does no such thing; it is a grammatical marker of location. Nobody standing 在街上 is balanced on the road surface in any meaningful sense.
Where this fits
Used in
Stories
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街上: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "街上" (on the street, in the street, out on the streets): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 42.