Ways to say it
| Chinese | Romanization (Wiktionary) |
|---|---|
| 離開 / 离开 | líkāi |
| 走 | zǒu |
| 走開 / 走开 | zǒukāi |
The phrase is used to describe the act of departing or leaving a place. Depending on the nuance, you might use 走 for a general sense of leaving or walking, while 快走 functions as an urgent instruction to depart immediately.
Which one should you use?
離開 / 离开 is used for the act of departing or leaving a location, whereas 走 is more general and can simply mean 'to walk' or 'to go'. 走開 / 走开 is more forceful and dismissive than 離開, often used when you want someone to get out of your space or stop bothering you.
Is there a formal and an informal way to say it?
For formal and polite requests, you can use 请离开 to politely request someone to leave a specific location or area or 请退下 to politely ask someone to leave or go away in formal contexts. In informal settings among acquaintances, 走開 / 走开 is a less offensive informal option than 滾開 / 滚开. If you wish to be very aggressive or rude, the slang term 滾開 / 滚开 is equivalent to 'get lost' or 'scram', though it can be used playfully among close friends.
Related words
How does it change in a sentence?
The word 走 can function as a verb meaning 'to leave' in contexts where the direction or departure is implied by the situation.
How do you pronounce it?
líkāi
Did you know?
- The aggressive term 滾開 / 滚开 literally means 'to roll away'. It evokes the image of something rolling down a hill to emphasize a forceful removal.
- While 走 means 'to leave' or 'to go' in modern Mandarin, it originally meant 'to run'. This shift in meaning occurred over centuries of linguistic evolution.
- Using 滾開 / 滚开 among very close friends can be a sign of intimacy. In this context, the extreme rudeness is flipped to become a playful or teasing gesture.
Examples in context
- 我希望汤姆走开。I wish Tom would just go away.This sentence shows how to use 走 to express a wish for someone to depart.Tatoeba #5685875 by verdastelo9604, translation #5168435 by CK
- 其他人正在离开呢，要不要等他们走完了我们聊聊？The others are leaving. What do you say we wait for them to go away and talk for a while?This sentence demonstrates using 走 to describe people leaving a location.Tatoeba #4512811 by yuiyu, translation #4757666 by garborg
- 请走开！Please go away!This sentence uses 走 as an imperative to tell someone to go away.Tatoeba #9961558 by GlossaMatik, translation #1246726 by rul
- 滚开，别闹了！Go away, stop fooling around!
- 走开一点，我要倒咖啡了。Move aside a bit, I am going to pour coffee.
- 4 more sentences on Tatoeba
Sources
- Wiktionary, “go away” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
