Expressing "to come from" with "laizi"

来自 (láizì) is used to express where something or someone comes from. Its meaning is similar to "to come from" in English.

Structure

Examples

You can see that in some of the sentences below dealing with ideas and other abstract nouns, a translation like "originate from" may be more appropriate.

我来自中国。 Wǒ láizì Zhōngguó. I come from China.
我的很多书都来自日本。 Wǒ de hěn duō shū dōu láizì Rìběn. I lot of the books I read come from Japan.
们公司的客户来自美国。 Wǒmen gōngsī de kèhù láizì Měiguó. Our company's clients come from the USA.
我的这个想法来自生活。 Wǒ de zhège xiǎngfǎ láizì shēnghuó. This idea of mine originated from daily life.
这是来自政府的报告。 Zhè shì láizì zhèngfǔ de bàogào. This is a report from the government.
有些坏习惯来自迷信。 Yǒu xiē huài xíguàn láizì míxìn. There are some bad habits that originate from superstition.
小明的成功来自他的努力和认真。 Xiǎo Míng de chénggōng láizì tā de nǔlì hé rènzhēn. Xiao Ming's success stems from his hard work and earnestness.
听了来自教授的建议，我决定去上海。 Tīng le láizì jiàoshòu de jiànyì, wǒ juédìng qù Shànghǎi. After listening to the professor's suggestion, I decided to go to Shanghai.
我和 Tom 虽然来自不同的国家，但是我们是好朋友。 Wǒ hé Tom suīrán láizì bùtóng de guójiā, dànshì wǒmen shì hǎo péngyou. Although Tom and I come from different countries, we're good friends.
我设计的这副作品来自小王的启发。 Wǒ shèjì de zhè fù zuòpǐn láizì Xiǎo Míng de qǐfā. This piece I designed was inspired by Xiao Wang.

Expressing "to come from" with "laizi"

Contents

Structure

Examples

Sources and further reading

Books