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Chinese grammar

在于 zàiyú

Lies in; is a matter of; depends on

X 在于 Y: the key to X is Y (不在于…而在于… “not A but B”).

In stories

  1. 关键在于它的茶是从谁手里买来的。

    世界上的“茶”为什么有两种叫法？ · Cha or tea? Why the world has two words for tea HSK 6

  2. 问题在于同音字太多。

    汉字没有字母，中国人怎么打字？ · How do Chinese people type without an alphabet? HSK 6

  3. 说到底，坐月子的意义并不在于某一条规矩，而在于让刚成为母亲的人好好休息、被好好照顾。

    什么是“坐月子”？ · What is zuo yuezi? Chinese postpartum confinement explained HSK 6

  4. 区别在于，这种用法在英语里只是例外，在中文里却是规律：凡是能数的东西，前面几乎都得配一个量词。

    中文为什么要用量词？ · Why does Chinese have measure words? HSK 6

Read 世界上的“茶”为什么有两种叫法？

What does 在于 (zàiyú) mean in Chinese?

Lies in; is a matter of; depends on. X 在于 Y: the key to X is Y (不在于…而在于… “not A but B”).

How common is 在于?

It comes up in 4 readings of the 392 stories and articles in our free Library.

Does it correct my mistakes?

No. It shows which patterns a text uses and what each one does; it doesn’t mark errors. Paste a sentence you wrote to see whether it uses the pattern you meant.

More free tools

Patterns found by our own parser; lines from our free Library.