# 迷路 vs 转向 as "get lost"



## Juxi22

Pleco dictionary says that both 迷路 and 转向 can be translated as "get lost". Is there any difference between the underlying sentences?
我迷路了。 我转了向。


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## Lizz Zhang

hi, in my opinion,转向 usually means somebody can not tell the direction. 迷路 refers to get lost.


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## Skatinginbc

轉向  zhuǎn xiàng (literally "turn direction"): change direction
轉向  zhuàn xiàng (literally "spinning direction"): vertigo (e.g., 昏頭轉向) that results in disorientation or loss of sense of direction

迷路: lose one's way


Juxi22 said:


> Is there any difference between the underlying sentences?
> 我迷路了。 我转了向。


我迷路了 ==> You were lost. 
我转了向 ==> You were disoriented.


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## ovaltine888

“转向” as "get lost” seems like a dialect use in northeast China, and the pronunciation "zuan4 xiang" is also different from the standard "zhuan3 xiang4".

Personally, I will never use "转向” for the meaning of "get lost". And I spent almost 10 years of childhood in north China but I have never heard of that either. So I reckon this usage is rather limited in Mandarin Chinese.

The more common meaning of "转向” is "to change direction or to turn", such as in "转向灯" (turn signal).


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## retrogradedwithwind

I don't agree with ovaltine888. To use 转（zhuan4）向 to mean disoriented is very common in mandarin. I think almost everyone could understand it.  It's meaning is not 迷路.  

One could 迷路 but at the same time doesn't 转向, and one could 转向 but at the same time doesn't 迷路.


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## ovaltine888

retrogradedwithwind said:


> I don't agree with ovaltine888. To use 转（zhuan4）向 to mean disoriented is very common in mandarin. I think almost everyone could understand it.  It's meaning is not 迷路.
> 
> One could 迷路 but at the same time doesn't 转向, and one could 转向 but at the same time doesn't 迷路.



Can you give me an example of “转向” in printed version?

The meaning you mentioned is only applied to 晕头转向, which is an idiom. In other cases, I hardly see any "转向” separately meaning disoriented.


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## retrogradedwithwind

随便一搜就好多啊。你看“其他人都在搜的”，基本都是把转向当成“失去方向”的意思。要不搜“人转向”，结果也不少。


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## Skatinginbc

宋秀云《烙印：我的回忆与感悟》 出了火车站，我转了向，迷路了！


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## ovaltine888

retrogradedwithwind said:


> 随便一搜就好多啊。你看“其他人都在搜的”，基本都是把转向当成“失去方向”的意思。要不搜“人转向”，结果也不少。



Okay then. But I still have to insist it is a regional colloquial usage.

From my own experience, I have never used this way, never learned this usage in school and never read it in written.

When it comes with "晕头转向”, I can understand it perfectly. But if you use “转向” separately, I may guess the meaning from the context but it is not that straightforward to me.


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## Skatinginbc

转向的离合词用法, for example:
"刚来北京的时候我也转过向。"
"那儿有座大楼，你一看就知道了，转不了向。"
"第一次到大城市，转向是难免的。"


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## retrogradedwithwind

ovaltine888 said:


> From my own experience, I have never used this way, never learned this usage in school and never read it in written.


It's very strange.  转向 is not regional,  or at least it's ever regional but now it's nationwide. You should have met it.

Could you tell me how to say 转向 in your dialect?  I just know another regional word for 转向,  which is 掉向。


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## ovaltine888

retrogradedwithwind said:


> It's very strange.  转向 is not regional,  or at least it's ever regional but now it's nationwide. You should have met it.
> 
> Could you tell me how to say 转向 in your dialect?  I just know another regional word for 转向,  which is 掉向。



For the meaning "get disoriented", I think I will simply put it in plain words 失去方向.
example
这个地下通道居然有8个不同的出口，我完全失去方向感了。


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## retrogradedwithwind

ovaltine888 said:


> I think I will simply put it in plain words 失去方向.


太文太现代了，明显不是方言。方言中应该是有专门词汇的，或许可以问一下年长者。


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## albert_laosong

转向 as in 晕头转向 can sometimes be used independently to mean the same as what it means in 晕头转向, but not very often. It's more informal, but it's more used in certain dialects I think, so it's not often heard in mandarin.


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## Shazhudao945

I agree with *ovaltine888*. Using 转向 to express "get lost" is really something I've never come across in my whole life, and I am from east China, so far as I know, people in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai don't use 转向 in this way. And this usage is definitely not included in any schoolbooks.


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