Grammar: 从 cóng - from … 到 dào - to, until

December 1, 2007 – 4:04 am

从 cong 到 dao - from until

This Monday’s Chinese class was full of insights and one thing I have to share with You is how to use the cóng … dào … construction. First we will have a look at the 2 main words.

从 cóng - from

到 dào - (1) to arrive, to reach (2) used after verbs to indicate successful attainment (3) to, until, towards

We will use the third (3) meaning of dào. Let’s have a look what we can express with the cóng … dào … construction. After that we will see examples.

We can express time
We can indicate location
Can be used to express range

Expressing Time

The expression of time with cong and dao is straight forward.

从周一到周五都有课。
cóng zhōu yī dào zhōu wǔ dōu yǒu kè - From Monday to Friday every (day) have class. -> We have class from Monday to Friday.

So the use for this structure is as following:

从 [start point of time] 周 [end point of time] [subject] [verb] [object]

Another example:

从 8 号到 12 号我都很忙。
cóng bā hào dào shí èr hào wǒ dōu hěn máng - From the 8th until the 12th I’m very busy.

Indicating location

从上海到北京要一天。
cóng Shànghǎi dào Běijing yào yī tiān - It takes one day from Shanghai to Beijing.

This is also easy. You need a starting location and a destination and then You can tell something about the range between these locations.

Another example:

从我家到火车站不远。
cóng wǒ jiā dào huǒchēzhàn bù yuǎn - The train station is not far from my place.

Expressing range

We have seen above that cong dao helps to tell something about the range between locations, however there are other ranges too.

从学生到老师都很忙。
cóng xuésheng dào lǎoshī dōu hěn máng - From student to teacher everyone is busy.

Another example:

从大人到孩子都喜欢他。
cóng dàrén dào háizi dōu xǐhuān tā - From adults to children every likes him.

New words

周一 zhōu yī - Monday. You can use 周 and a number to indicate the day of the week. I will come back to the weekdays in another post in the future. 都 dōu - all, every. 都 will also receive some coverage in the future.

Here are some words from the examples I think are important:

从 cóng - from
到 dào - (1) to arrive, to reach (2) used after verbs to indicate succesfull attainment (3) to, until, towards
周一 zhōu yī - Monday
周五 zhōu wǔ - Friday
都 dōu - all, every
有 yǒu - to have
课 kè - class
号 hào - number, day of the month
忙 máng - busy
上海 Shànghǎi - Shanghai
北京 Běijing - Beijing
要 yào - need, take, want, desire
天 tiān - day
家 jiā -family, home
火车站 huǒchēzhàn - trainstation
不 bù - not
远 yuǎn - far
学生 xuésheng - pupil, student
老师 lǎoshī - teacher
大人 dàrén - adult
孩子 háizi - child
喜欢 xǐhuān - to like