Town, Region and Country
Village, city, province, country - and the rule that reverses an English address, an English date and an English name, all with one idea: big first.
Practise it before the paper, not after
Free, interactive practice on the words and structures the examiner keeps asking for.
Start revising freeWhat you'll cover
Chinese starts with the big thing
Write an English address and you start with the house number and work outwards to the country. Chinese does the opposite, and so does a Chinese date. One rule covers both: the larger unit comes first. It sounds like a formatting detail and it is not, because once you know it you can pick the city out of an address you cannot otherwise read.
From smallest to largest
Six words for the places this topic is about, arranged the way Chinese thinks about them:
Match each word to its meaning
- 城市 (chéngshì)
- 村子 (cūnzi)
- 省 (shěng)
- 国家 (guójiā)
- 北京市 - Beijing city
- village
- province
- 中国 - China
The envelope, reversed
An English address goes outwards: number, street, town, county, country. A Chinese address goes inwards. Here is the shape, using an illustrative address rather than a real one: 中国 北京市 朝阳区 学院路 5号 country, then city, then district, then road, then number. And it is not only addresses. A date is written year, month, day: 2026年8月5日 is the 5th of August 2026. A Chinese name puts the family name before the given name, which you may already have met. One rule, three places. Larger before smaller, every time.
Which is a Chinese address?
Which of these follows the order a Chinese address is written in?
- Country, city, district, road, house number
- House number, road, district, city, country
- City, house number, country, road
- Road, city, country, house number
Order the address
Put the parts of this address into the order they would be written in Chinese, starting with the largest.
- 中国 - China
- 北京市 - Beijing city
- 朝阳区 - Chaoyang district
- 学院路 - Xueyuan Road
- 5号 - number 5
The same information, reversed
Read across. Nothing has changed except the direction of travel.
The rule
In Chinese the _____ unit is written first. So an address begins with the _____ and ends with the house number, which is the _____ of the English order. The same rule applies to dates: the year comes first, then the _____, then the day. The word for a city is _____.
Find the country
Here is an address written the Chinese way. Tap the part that names the largest unit, even if you cannot read the rest.
- 中国
- 北京市
- 朝阳区
- 学院路 5号
Which follow the rule?
Select the TWO that follow the big-before-small rule.
- An address beginning 中国 and ending with the house number
- A date written 2026年8月5日
- An address beginning with the house number and ending with 中国
- A date written 5日8月2026年
Use it
Three moments where the rule earns its keep.
- You are given a long Chinese address and asked which city it is in. Where do you look?
- You see 2026年8月5日 on a form. What date is it?
- You want to say where you live, from smallest to largest, as English does.
City, village and province in Chinese
A village is _____ and a city is _____. A province is _____ and a country is _____. And the rule that covers addresses, dates and names is the same one: the _____ unit always comes first.
Where you live, and the Chinese rule
Write in English about where you live, and then explain the Chinese rule you have met in this module.
- Say whether you live in a village, a town or a city, and give the Chinese word for it
- Write your own address in the order a Chinese address would use, in English words
- Explain the big-before-small rule, and give one example that is not an address
- Say how the rule helps you find the city in a Chinese address you cannot otherwise read