ENESFRDE中文

Characters, words, pinyin or English

里 lǐ in

in; inside; Chinese mile

How to remember 里: 日 sun + 土 earth = in. Under the hot sun a festival-goer digs through the muddy earth for her lost phone, sure it is somewhere in this mud.

  • 50. most frequent character
  • HSK 1
  • 7 strokes
  • Radical 里

Component breakdown

里 = 日 sun + 土 earth

  • 日 sun
  • 土 earth
The Gushi story

Under the hot sun a festival-goer digs through the muddy earth for her lost phone, sure it is somewhere in this mud.

How it came to be

A field over the earth it was cut from: land somebody has settled and paced out. It named the village first. The inside sense came from a second character folded into it later.

How it is used

  • 'Inside' - 家里 (jiā lǐ) at home, 房间里 (fángjiān lǐ) in the room. It goes AFTER the place, unlike English 'in'.
  • In location words it pairs with 外 (wài, outside): 里面 (lǐmiàn) inside vs 外面 (wàimiàn) outside.
  • A separate sense is the unit of distance - 公里 (gōnglǐ) kilometer, 一里路 (yì lǐ lù) one li.

Characters built with 里

Words with 里

Example sentences

  • 房间里有火。 Fángjiān li yǒu huǒ.There's a fire in the room.
  • 她可能在教室里。 Tā kěnéng zài jiàoshì li.She might be in the classroom.
  • 学校里很安静。 Xuéxiào li hěn ānjìng.It's very quiet inside the school.
  • 公园里有很多人。 Gōngyuán li yǒu hěn duō rén.There are many people in the park.