# 你去多长时间北京？



## L3P

大家好：

I`ve come across the fact that the sentence 你去北京多长时间？can have two 
different meanings depending on the context:
1. How long does it take for you to get to Beijing?
2. For how long are you going to Beijing,i.e. How long are you going to stay there?

Is that correct


多谢。


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## stephenlearner

Yes, there are indeed two meanings in this sentence. I don't know why  去 can mean stay in this case.

Maybe 去 does not mean stay, but the structure of this sentence or something underneath the sentence conveys this idea.

你去火车站多长时间，however, can only have one meaning.

Besides, 你去银行多长时间 is also ambiguous.


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## L3P

stephenlearner said:


> 你去火车站多长时间，however, can only have one meaning



Thanks a lot，stephenlearner.Can we make it less ambiguous:
你去火车站路上（走）多长时间？


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## stephenlearner

You are welcome.
But I don't think 你去火车站多长时间 is ambiguous. It means what you phrased: 你去火车站路上（走）多长时间.

Now I see why 去 can create ambiguity.
去 generally speaking, is translated into go, but it also *implies* "be away". When you go to someplace, you are away from your original place. So 你去北京多长时间 can imply "how long will you be away"? 

But why does "你去火车站多长时间“ have only one meaning? Because we don't expect you to stay in the railroad station. Right? People won't stay in there for some time and come back if they are the passengers. But when we say 你去北京多长时间，we know you are going to stay there for some time and then return.


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## fyl

To me,

1. 你去多长时间北京 (in the title) is a wrong sentence. You can add a 的 to make the structure logical: 你去多长时间的北京. But note that this is a very bad sentence, though 你买多少钱的酱油 would be correct.

2. 你去北京多长时间 (in your post) could be interpreted in two ways
  (1) 你去北京呆多长时间？(How long will you stay at Beijing?) or 你去北京呆了多长时间了？(How long have you stayed in Beijing?)
  (2) 你去北京路上要走多长时间？(How long is the trip to Beijing?) or 你去北京出发多长时间了？(How long has it been since you leave for Beijing?)

But without a context, I will automatically consider 你去北京多长时间 as the first one (how long will you stay).


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## L3P

fyl said:


> To me,
> 你去多长时间北京 (in the title) is a wrong sentence. You can add a 的 to make the structure logical: 你去多长时间的北京. But note that this is a very bad sentence



fyl，then what is the right way to ask 'How long is the trip to Beijing?'


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## fyl

L3P said:


> fyl，then what is the right way to ask 'How long is the trip to Beijing?'


I have mentioned this in my previous post: 你去北京路上要走多长时间？
You can leave out 路上. You can also change 要 to 得(dei3). 你去北京要走多长时间 and 你去北京得走多长时间 are both correct.

Note that 你去多长时间北京(in the title) and 你去北京多长时间(in the post #1) are two different things. The first one is a wrong sentence, and second one has two interpretations.


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## L3P

Again,thanks a lot,fyl.


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## SuperXW

I agree 你去北京多长时间 is ambiguous. People say it a lot though, you have to understand it according to the context.


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## Messquito

I don't know about China, but 多長時間 would sound a little weird in Taiwan, we usually say 多久 in this case.
To specify it to the time of the journey, you can choose to add 要: 你去北京要多久？
But don't worry, this ambiguity happens to us often, too.
：我幾個月前去了法國，而且是搭馬航。
：喔？那你去那裡多久？
：兩個月。
：我是指你搭馬航去那裡多久？

Note:
你去多久？ How long were you there?
When the place is dropped in the sentence, the ambiguity often disappears.
你去北京多久？
When you keep 北京 in the sentence, then one has to think about what you mean.


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## JayZhang

SuperXW said:


> I agree 你去北京多长时间 is ambiguous. People say it a lot though, you have to understand it according to the context.


I agree with you. Both ways of understanding make sense, and it depends on the circumstance you use.
But I think to avoid misunderstanding, people tend to say "你去北京要多长时间" to express "How much time will it take for you to go to Beijing?".


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## auroborc

^Actually I think “你去北京要多长时间” tends to mean "How long are you gonna stay in Beijing?". Personally, if I am trying to avoid ambiguity, I would add words like "路上" as in "你去北京路上要（花）多长时间" to indicate the time spent on the journey.


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## 卡诺keroa

actually,你去北京多长时间 just has one literal meaning of "how long will you stay in beijing" instead of "how long does it takes for you to beijing"
i'm a chinese, if i use this sentence, i won't mean the time it takes,i just mean the time you stay there, if you learn this sentence, just learn the one mainly usual meaning, it's enough, if you want to say "how long does it takes for you to beijing", you just add one word "要" "你去北京要多长时间", we always use this word to distinguish the two different meanings


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