在哪里？
Zài nǎlǐ? — Where Is It?
Position words, and the first Chinese sentence pattern that feels genuinely different from English. Chinese puts the place before the thing being described, and this unit builds that habit with objects students can actually move around.
Position words go after the place
English says “on the table.” Chinese says “table on”:
书在桌子上。 The book is on the table. (“book at table on”)
猫在椅子下。 The cat is under the chair. (“cat at chair under”)
Unit objectives
- Use six position words correctly
- Ask 在哪里？ and answer with a full sentence
- Put the position word after the place, not before
- Describe where three objects are in a picture
Key vocabulary
在 哪里 上 下 里 外 前 后
Where everything is
On, under, in, out
A box and a toy. The teacher moves it, students say where it went — no pictures needed, just the real thing.
Front and behind
Lining up and describing the queue — who is in front of whom, entirely in Chinese.
Hide and describe
One student hides an object, the class asks 在哪里？ and narrows it down with position words.
Big to small, always
Chinese consistently orders information from the largest container to the smallest thing inside it — and once you notice it, you see it everywhere. Addresses run country, city, street, building, flat. Dates run year, month, day. Names run family first, person second. Even this unit’s sentence does it: the table comes before the spot on the table. It’s one underlying habit of mind, and pointing it out helps children stop treating each pattern as a separate rule to memorise.
Unit 7 progress check
A light, no-pressure way to see what’s sticking:
- Can your child say where an object is in a full sentence?
- Do they put the position word last?
- Can they ask 在哪里？?
Word order is the whole point here. Four position words in the right order beats eight in the wrong one.