<p>I was born in Harbin, 落家里了 is a typical northeastern saying.i can't recall anyone would say 落在家里了，落 emphasizes on the meaning of forget,while if you add 在 after a verb, you might have some intention to do that action. e.g.我把伞留（在）家里了，我把钱放（在）银行了。you know what you are doing, you have an intention. and 在 can be omitted when followed by a locality noun.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-02-18T08:46:47.493Z
2022-02-18T08:46:47.493Z
Situ Chinese
<p>It might be confused with the English usage of <em>home</em>, such as <em>go home</em>. We don't use <em>to</em> because of the special treatment of <em>home</em>, not for the same reason as in Chinese.</p>
<hr />
<p><strong>Two Types of Locative Phrases</strong></p>
<p>In Chinese, there are <strong>two types of locative phrases</strong>, in this case 家里 (unmarked noun phrases) and 在家里 (coverb-object), which are both <strong>regular</strong> forms and frequently used. The current mainstream linguistic treatment is to recognize their equal status as locative phrases, so it's inaccurate to understand the first form as the ellipsis of the coverb 在. The unmarked form looks like an object, but it's indeed a locative. (In fact the locative is only one of the many roles an unmarked noun phase can act.)</p>
<hr />
<p><strong>USAGE</strong></p>
<ol>
<li><p>In some cases both forms are <strong>interchangeable</strong>, like in your example. Likewise, you can also say 张东把钥匙放桌上了 or 张东把钥匙放在桌上了. These are usually at <strong>postverbal positions</strong>.</p>
</li>
<li><p>At the <strong>sentence initial position</strong>, it's more natural to use the <strong>unmarked form</strong>. For example, 桌上有钥匙 is much better than 在桌上有钥匙.</p>
</li>
<li><p>At the <strong>preverbal position</strong>, however, the <strong>coverb form</strong> should be used. For example, 我在家里吃饭 (I'm eating at home). We <strong>cannot</strong> say 我家里吃饭.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<hr />
<p>For different variants (dialects) of Chinese the usage could be slightly different. However, The general framework is the same since the two types of locative phrases are already equally used in Classical Chinese.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-02-12T15:04:47.937Z
Looks like a very nice explanation!
ALife
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-02-12T13:04:03.840Z
2022-02-12T20:15:01.097Z
2022-02-12T20:15:01.097Z
lilysirius
<p><strong>Some verbs (like &quot;落&quot;) do not need any preposition after them if there is a location phrase(地点短语), especially in spoken Chinese.</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>落<code>special verb</code>家里<code>location phrase</code></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some other verbs like &quot;落&quot;: 扔, 放, 丢, 送.</p>
<p>If you add a preposition, the sentence is still right.</p>
<p>Why we often delete the preposition? To make the sentence shorter and more casual. It is spoken Chinese. We hardly delete the preposition when we write a formal file.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-20T00:32:13.443Z
That's also what I was about to say. A similar usage in English is like "go home" vs. "go to home". "to" is not needed.
ALife
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-10T03:24:51.037Z
2021-07-10T03:24:51.037Z
T-Pioneer
<p>From these 2, 2. is preferable，according to friends (他们说，“我也不知道为什么。”）:</p>
<ol>
<li>我把钥匙落在家里了。</li>
<li>我把钥匙落家里了。</li>
</ol>
<p>A meaning of 落：留下。</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-09T07:16:42.823Z
If you type "我把钥匙落家里了" in Google Translate, you get "I left the key at home" But if you type "I left the key at home", you get "我把钥匙留在家里了" Go figure.
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-02T09:18:39.683Z
2021-07-02T09:18:39.683Z
Pedroski
<p>The following problem is from a mock exam question from HSK5级应试指南; we're meant to arrange the sentence fragments into a grammatical sentence:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>钥匙、落、把、了、张东、家里<br />
<sub>(<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/fXCyl.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">image</a>)</sub></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I didn't get this answer correct (the lack of a 在 confused me).  The given answer is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>张东把钥匙<strong>落家里</strong>了。<br />
<sub>(<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/M6qD6.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">image</a>)</sub></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Judging from <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E6%8A%8A%E9%92%A5%E5%8C%99%E8%90%BD%E5%AE%B6%E9%87%8C%E4%BA%86%22" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Google</a>, this seems to be a correct grammar structure, but I haven't encountered before: there appears to be a gap in my knowledge.  It appears in this context, 落 has this meaning and pronunciation:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?wdqb=%E8%90%BD" rel="nofollow noreferrer">CC-CEDICT</a>: <strong>落 (là​)</strong>: to leave out / to be missing / <strong>to leave behind or forget to bring</strong> / to lag or fall behind</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Question</strong>: How can I make sense of 落家里 within 张东把钥匙落家里了?</p>
<p>I'd ordinarily expect something like 张东把钥匙忘在家里了.  I'm guessing 落家里 (without a 在) is just an irregular case, and I can't generalize this to other verbs and/or objects.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-03T00:21:29.157Z
Note this is a local dialect, I believe is somewhere in northeastern (東北) China. You are correct, in standard speaking, 在 should be added.
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-03T12:06:04.810Z
张东 dropped / forgot the key at his home.
Zhang
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-10T03:15:34.107Z
@r13 Due to Mandarin is based on Northern dialect, some dialect usages are still retained in standard Chinese. I live in eastern China, but the people here also use this kind of sentence.
T-Pioneer
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-10T04:06:45.533Z
@T-Pioneer Could be, due to the closeness in the geography of your province to the north-eastern provinces. Which province do you live in? I believe (not necessarily true though), Mandarin was modified from the official language (官話) in Bejing used since Qing Dynasty (清朝), so generally speaking, the Northern dialect and Mandarin do bear the similarities. However, 落家里 is not the correct way, to say something forgotten and left at home, per standard Mandarin (普通話) but a local custom (地方慣用語).
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-10T04:32:52.567Z
@r13 I live in Yangzhou, Jiangsu. You are right that the dialect of my hometown is a kind of 官话. Yangzhou dialect is a kind of 江淮官话. It is obviously correct to add a preposition. But is it correct to remove the preposition in standard spoken Mandarin? I am not very sure. If it is only a local custom, someone who speaks another dialect or knows Mandarin very well will help us. If it is widely used in the whole country, it shall not be a local custom. But because every dialect is now influenced by Mandarin(based on Northern dialect), it may mistake as a local custom can turn into standard usage.
T-Pioneer
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-10T04:44:07.460Z
@T-Pioneer :) You can conveniently talk to a Shanghainese to see whether 落家里 is standard or not. I was guessing you are from Shangdong then.
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-10T04:51:53.067Z
@r13 Uh... My home is still too far from Shanghai, about 300 km. Suzhou is close enough. There are few people from Shanghai in my city because Yangzhou is a small city(but still has over 4,500,000 people).
T-Pioneer
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-20T00:39:01.263Z
@r13 as a native chinese speaker I would say that "落家里了" is perfectly ok, whether you are from 东北，四川，山东，上海。“落在家里了” is also ok, but sounds a bit too formal or even awkward.  Also as a side note, iirc, there is no big places called Shangdong in China. You probably meant Shandong/山东 province, or maybe even Shanghai city?
ALife
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-20T00:58:16.523Z
@ALife It seems only "北方人" pronounce "落" as  "la". We pronounce it the regular way "luò", and we say "掉(丟,忘)在家里了" instead of "落在家里了" - which have only heard from one of my uncle who is (Shangdong) 山东人 and my 東北 friends.
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-20T14:16:19.577Z
@r13 山东 is "ShanDong", not "shangdong". Not sure what do you mean by "we". Are you ("we") all native speakers, and in the case you all are (I doubt), are you sure you say 普通话 well? 落as "la" in 普通话 for sure.
ALife
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-20T16:42:59.940Z
@ALife Yes, I've miss-typed Shandong, shame on me. "We" in here means "we in the region" (you are obviously excluded) who speak Mandarin, and we call it 國語, as it is 公認的中國現代標準語言.
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-20T18:35:09.657Z
@r13 Not sure what region you are referring to, and w/o telling which region, you did not really answer my earlier question, and in turn did not justify your comments earlier either. Also, "國語, ... is 公認的中國現代標準語言", if you are referring to taiwan-style madarin rather than 普通话standardized in mainland china, then probably hundreds of millions of people would disagree with you, if not in a billion. The OP was probably also talking about 普通话 rather than 国语 you were referring to. And finally, I doubt you are even a native speaker of the so-called 国语...
ALife
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-20T18:44:27.077Z
Unfortunately, Taiwan Style is the "Traditional Style", 普通话 is developed around 1950 or so.
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-20T21:12:32.657Z
Of course I know 普通话 was formed after the creation of PRC. Even the word 普通话  itself, was probably coined around that time. But how this fact is related to the disagreement to your claim that "國語, ... is 公認的中國現代標準語言". Plus, please do not mislead others on what you do not know well.
ALife
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-20T21:16:21.803Z
Also, although 普通话and国语are not the same, the difference is probably minor. The problem is not about the difference between  普通话and国语, but that you are probably a native speaker of none of them, maybe not even of any major chinese dialect. I am curious a native speaker of what chinese dialect would translate 我是饿 to "I am a hunger" (https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/48519/difference-between-%e6%88%91%e5%be%88%e9%a5%bf-and-%e6%88%91%e6%98%af%e9%a5%bf/48527?noredirect=1#comment67917_48527).
ALife
<grammar><usage>
How can I make sense of 落家里 within 张东把钥匙落家里了?
# How can I make sense of 落家里 within 张东把钥匙落家里了?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-07-02)

The following problem is from a mock exam question from HSK5级应试指南; we're meant to arrange the sentence fragments into a grammatical sentence:

> 钥匙、落、把、了、张东、家里  
> ([image](https://i.sstatic.net/fXCyl.jpg))

I didn't get this answer correct (the lack of a 在 confused me). The given answer is:

> 张东把钥匙**落家里**了。  
> ([image](https://i.sstatic.net/M6qD6.jpg))

Judging from [Google](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E6%8A%8A%E9%92%A5%E5%8C%99%E8%90%BD%E5%AE%B6%E9%87%8C%E4%BA%86%22), this seems to be a correct grammar structure, but I haven't encountered before: there appears to be a gap in my knowledge. It appears in this context, 落 has this meaning and pronunciation:

> [CC-CEDICT](https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?wdqb=%E8%90%BD): **落 (là​)**: to leave out / to be missing / **to leave behind or forget to bring** / to lag or fall behind

**Question**: How can I make sense of 落家里 within 张东把钥匙落家里了?

I'd ordinarily expect something like 张东把钥匙忘在家里了. I'm guessing 落家里 (without a 在) is just an irregular case, and I can't generalize this to other verbs and/or objects.

**Tags:** grammar, usage

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Note this is a local dialect, I believe is somewhere in northeastern (東北) China. You are correct, in standard speaking, 在 should be added.  
> **username_2**: 张东 dropped / forgot the key at his home.  
> **username_3**: @username_1 Due to Mandarin is based on Northern dialect, some dialect usages are still retained in standard Chinese. I live in eastern China, but the people here also use this kind of sentence.  
> **username_1**: @username_3 Could be, due to the closeness in the geography of your province to the north-eastern provinces. Which province do you live in? I believe (not necessarily true though), Mandarin was modified from the official language (官話) in Bejing used since Qing Dynasty (清朝), so generally speaking, the Northern dialect and Mandarin do bear the similarities. However, 落家里 is not the correct way, to say something forgotten and left at home, per standard Mandarin (普通話) but a local custom (地方慣用語).  
> **username_3**: @username_1 I live in Yangzhou, Jiangsu. You are right that the dialect of my hometown is a kind of 官话. Yangzhou dialect is a kind of 江淮官话. It is obviously correct to add a preposition. But is it correct to remove the preposition in standard spoken Mandarin? I am not very sure. If it is only a local custom, someone who speaks another dialect or knows Mandarin very well will help us. If it is widely used in the whole country, it shall not be a local custom. But because every dialect is now influenced by Mandarin(based on Northern dialect), it may mistake as a local custom can turn into standard usage.  
> **username_1**: @username_3 :) You can conveniently talk to a Shanghainese to see whether 落家里 is standard or not. I was guessing you are from Shangdong then.  
> **username_3**: @username_1 Uh... My home is still too far from Shanghai, about 300 km. Suzhou is close enough. There are few people from Shanghai in my city because Yangzhou is a small city(but still has over 4,500,000 people).  
> **username_4**: @username_1 as a native chinese speaker I would say that "落家里了" is perfectly ok, whether you are from 东北，四川，山东，上海。“落在家里了” is also ok, but sounds a bit too formal or even awkward.  Also as a side note, iirc, there is no big places called Shangdong in China. You probably meant Shandong/山东 province, or maybe even Shanghai city?  
> **username_1**: @username_4 It seems only "北方人" pronounce "落" as  "la". We pronounce it the regular way "luò", and we say "掉(丟,忘)在家里了" instead of "落在家里了" - which have only heard from one of my uncle who is (Shangdong) 山东人 and my 東北 friends.  
> **username_4**: @username_1 山东 is "ShanDong", not "shangdong". Not sure what do you mean by "we". Are you ("we") all native speakers, and in the case you all are (I doubt), are you sure you say 普通话 well? 落as "la" in 普通话 for sure.  
> **username_1**: @username_4 Yes, I've miss-typed Shandong, shame on me. "We" in here means "we in the region" (you are obviously excluded) who speak Mandarin, and we call it 國語, as it is 公認的中國現代標準語言.  
> **username_4**: @username_1 Not sure what region you are referring to, and w/o telling which region, you did not really answer my earlier question, and in turn did not justify your comments earlier either. Also, "國語, ... is 公認的中國現代標準語言", if you are referring to taiwan-style madarin rather than 普通话standardized in mainland china, then probably hundreds of millions of people would disagree with you, if not in a billion. The OP was probably also talking about 普通话 rather than 国语 you were referring to. And finally, I doubt you are even a native speaker of the so-called 国语...  
> **username_1**: Unfortunately, Taiwan Style is the "Traditional Style", 普通话 is developed around 1950 or so.  
> **username_4**: Of course I know 普通话 was formed after the creation of PRC. Even the word 普通话  itself, was probably coined around that time. But how this fact is related to the disagreement to your claim that "國語, ... is 公認的中國現代標準語言". Plus, please do not mislead others on what you do not know well.  
> **username_4**: Also, although 普通话and国语are not the same, the difference is probably minor. The problem is not about the difference between  普通话and国语, but that you are probably a native speaker of none of them, maybe not even of any major chinese dialect. I am curious a native speaker of what chinese dialect would translate 我是饿 to "I am a hunger" (https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/48519/difference-between-%e6%88%91%e5%be%88%e9%a5%bf-and-%e6%88%91%e6%98%af%e9%a5%bf/48527?noredirect=1#comment67917_48527).  

---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2022-02-18. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

I was born in Harbin, 落家里了 is a typical northeastern saying.i can't recall anyone would say 落在家里了，落 emphasizes on the meaning of forget,while if you add 在 after a verb, you might have some intention to do that action. e.g.我把伞留（在）家里了，我把钱放（在）银行了。you know what you are doing, you have an intention. and 在 can be omitted when followed by a locality noun.


---

### Answer by username_6 on 2022-02-12. Score: 1

It might be confused with the English usage of *home*, such as *go home*. We don't use *to* because of the special treatment of *home*, not for the same reason as in Chinese.

---

**Two Types of Locative Phrases**

In Chinese, there are **two types of locative phrases**, in this case 家里 (unmarked noun phrases) and 在家里 (coverb-object), which are both **regular** forms and frequently used. The current mainstream linguistic treatment is to recognize their equal status as locative phrases, so it's inaccurate to understand the first form as the ellipsis of the coverb 在. The unmarked form looks like an object, but it's indeed a locative. (In fact the locative is only one of the many roles an unmarked noun phase can act.)

---

**USAGE**

1. In some cases both forms are **interchangeable**, like in your example. Likewise, you can also say 张东把钥匙放桌上了 or 张东把钥匙放在桌上了. These are usually at **postverbal positions**.
2. At the **sentence initial position**, it's more natural to use the **unmarked form**. For example, 桌上有钥匙 is much better than 在桌上有钥匙.
3. At the **preverbal position**, however, the **coverb form** should be used. For example, 我在家里吃饭 (I'm eating at home). We **cannot** say 我家里吃饭.

---

For different variants (dialects) of Chinese the usage could be slightly different. However, The general framework is the same since the two types of locative phrases are already equally used in Classical Chinese.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: Looks like a very nice explanation!  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2021-07-10. Score: 1

**Some verbs (like "落") do not need any preposition after them if there is a location phrase(地点短语), especially in spoken Chinese.**

> 落`special verb`家里`location phrase`

Some other verbs like "落": 扔, 放, 丢, 送.

If you add a preposition, the sentence is still right.

Why we often delete the preposition? To make the sentence shorter and more casual. It is spoken Chinese. We hardly delete the preposition when we write a formal file.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: That's also what I was about to say. A similar usage in English is like "go home" vs. "go to home". "to" is not needed.  

---

### Answer by username_7 on 2021-07-02. Score: 0

From these 2, 2. is preferable，according to friends (他们说，“我也不知道为什么。”）:

1. 我把钥匙落在家里了。
2. 我把钥匙落家里了。

A meaning of 落：留下。

> **Comments:**
> **username_8**: If you type "我把钥匙落家里了" in Google Translate, you get "I left the key at home" But if you type "I left the key at home", you get "我把钥匙留在家里了" Go figure.  

---

