A1 Idiom خنثی

来来往往

lái lái wǎng wǎng

Coming and going

Phrase in 30 Seconds

Use {来来往往|láilái-wǎngwǎng} to describe a busy scene where people or vehicles are constantly moving back and forth.

  • Means: Continuous movement of people or vehicles in a specific area.
  • Used in: Describing crowded streets, busy stations, or bustling offices.
  • Don't confuse: It describes movement, not the people themselves (use '行人' for pedestrians).
🚶‍♂️ + 🚗 + 🔄 = {来来往往|láilái-wǎngwǎng}

Explanation at your level:

This phrase means people or cars moving back and forth. You use it to say a place is busy. For example, you can say 'The street is busy' using this phrase.
It describes a continuous flow of movement. It is a reduplicated form of 'come' and 'go'. You can use it to describe a train station, a busy office, or a crowded market. It helps make your descriptions sound more natural and descriptive.
This idiom captures the rhythmic nature of movement in a public space. It functions as a descriptive adjective or a verb phrase. Unlike simple verbs, it implies a sustained, repetitive action over a period of time, making it ideal for setting a scene in narrative writing.
The phrase utilizes reduplication to emphasize the intensity and continuity of traffic or footfall. It is a staple in descriptive Chinese, allowing speakers to convey the 'bustle' of urban environments without needing complex sentence structures. It is particularly effective when contrasting a static background with dynamic, moving elements.
From a linguistic perspective, this is a classic AABB-style reduplication. It serves to aspectualize the movement, transforming a punctual event into a durative state. It is highly idiomatic and serves as a lexical marker for 'liveliness' in urban discourse, often appearing in literary descriptions of cityscapes.
This idiom exemplifies the Chinese tendency toward symmetry and rhythmic balance in lexical formation. By doubling the binary opposition of 'coming' and 'going', the phrase creates a cognitive map of constant flux. It is a quintessential example of how Chinese morphology uses repetition to denote aspectual continuity, providing a vivid, almost cinematic quality to descriptive prose.

معنی

Describing continuous movement of people or vehicles.

🌍

زمینه فرهنگی

In Chinese cities, '人来人往' is often used to describe the prosperity of a commercial district.

💡

Reduplication

Remember that doubling verbs in Chinese often adds a sense of continuity.

معنی

Describing continuous movement of people or vehicles.

💡

Reduplication

Remember that doubling verbs in Chinese often adds a sense of continuity.

خودت رو بسنج

Fill in the blank with the correct phrase.

火车站里______的人很多。

✓ درسته! ✗ نه دقیقاً. پاسخ صحیح: 来来往往

The phrase describes the continuous movement of people in a station.

🎉 امتیاز: /1

ابزارهای بصری یادگیری

سوالات متداول

1 سوال

Yes, if they are moving in a group.

عبارات مرتبط

🔄

人来人往

synonym

People coming and going

کجا استفاده کنیم

✈️

At the airport

A: 机场里{来来往往|láilái-wǎngwǎng}的人真多。

B: 是啊，大家都赶着回家。

neutral
🏙️

Watching a busy street

A: 你看那条街，{来来往往|láilái-wǎngwǎng}的车辆真多。

B: 那是市中心，当然忙。

neutral

Memorize It

Mnemonic

Think of a busy 'Lobby' (Lái) where people are 'Walking' (Wǎng).

Visual Association

Imagine a busy train station with a revolving door. People are constantly entering and exiting in a rhythmic, circular motion.

Rhyme

Lái-lái, wǎng-wǎng, busy street, walking feet.

Story

Xiao Ming sat at a café. He watched the street. People were {来来往往|láilái-wǎngwǎng}. He felt like he was watching a movie. He ordered a coffee and kept watching.

Word Web

人来人往往来走动繁忙流动穿梭

چالش

Spend 5 minutes in a public place and describe the scene using this phrase.

In Other Languages

Spanish high

Ir y venir

Spanish uses 'ir' (go) first, while Chinese uses '来' (come) first.

French high

Aller et venir

The order is 'go and come' rather than 'come and go'.

German high

Das Kommen und Gehen

German treats it as a noun phrase rather than a reduplicated verb phrase.

Japanese high

往来 (ōrai)

Japanese uses the compound 'ōrai' more formally than the Chinese reduplicated form.

Arabic moderate

الذهاب والإياب

Arabic focuses on the 'returning' aspect more than the 'coming' aspect.

Korean high

왕래 (wang-rae)

It is used more as a formal noun than a descriptive verb phrase.

Portuguese high

Ir e vir

The order is 'go and come'.

Chinese high

人来人往

It is more specific to human traffic than the generic '来来往往'.

Easily Confused

来来往往 در مقابل 往来

Learners often use it as a direct synonym.

Use '往来' for business or social relationships, '来来往往' for physical movement.

سوالات متداول (1)

Yes, if they are moving in a group.

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