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Flat ground


LinZhenPu

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Google translate says 'flat ground' is 平地 but using this word with a Chinese person she doesn't understand.

She asked me what attracted me to come to China and I jokingly said 平地。She doesn't get it.  So how is this usually said in Chinese?

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If you meant it in some kind of metaphorical way it probably made no sense.

 

It could be that 平地 also means 'to level the ground' (according to Pleco), so it could have been taken to have some other meaning. "Levelling the ground" in that sense has a sinister tone to it, heh.

 

If quite literally you live in a hilly place and want to be somewhere flatter, then I suppose just bulk out the description. A yearning for 'flat ground' is vague in any language if you don't have any context to go from!

 

If it were me I'd say 在我的家乡山很多,所以我很想住在比较平的地方。I don't even know if the grammar is correct there but it's what I'd try.

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2 hours ago, NotChinese said:

If it were me I'd say 在我的家乡山很多,所以我很想住在比较平的地方。I don't even know if the grammar is correct there but it's what I'd try.

I would consider the expression 一馬平川.

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1 hour ago, Shelley said:

Do you mean flat ground as in level playing field? Used to mean equal opportunities for all?

If so I think you probably just have to say that. Not all things like that translate.

No I mean literally flat ground. As in China is a flat place, apart from the mountains.

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Yea I realized it's a literary word. Maybe too literary even.

Basically it means a flat land where horses can gallop. :)

平原 (plain) may also work. Or 我喜歡這裡地勢平坦.

 

EDIT: Yeah, I think this could work:

-- What attracted you to come to China?

-- 平原 (Plains).

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50 minutes ago, LinZhenPu said:

lol that's all in chinese, 看不懂。

 

If you use google chrome, search for the Zhongwen Chinese popup dictionary add-on. With the dictionary turned on, you can just hover the mouse over any Chinese on screen and it gives you a translation.

 

For the thing you 看不懂,I get, "Flat land one could gallop across."

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On 17/02/2017 at 11:10 PM, LinZhenPu said:

I mean literally flat ground. As in China is a flat place, apart from the mountains

Even you had said this in English to me, I would be totally blank.... Just like your chinese friend.

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