Mission—Team—FAQ—Privacy—Terms—Sponsors—Grammar—Typing Course—Donate

© 2026 Elon Automation B.V.

Learn Hardcore Chinese: bǎ yīfu liàng zài yángtái shàng. - Hang the clothes on the balcony.

Hardcore Chinese
/Doing the household laundry
/bǎ yīfu liàng zài yángtái shàng.

bǎ yīfu liàng zài yángtái shàng.

把bǎ　衣服yīfu　晾liàng　在zài　阳台yángtái　上shàng。bǎ yīfu liàng zài yángtái shàng.

Hang the clothes on the balcony.

Breakdown of bǎ yīfu liàng zài yángtái shàng.

disposal marker

衣服yīfuyīfu

上shàngshàng

Questions & Answers about bǎ yīfu liàng zài yángtái shàng.

Why does this sentence use 把?

把 marks 衣服 as the object being actively handled or moved into a new state/location.

In this sentence:

把衣服晾在阳台上
literally: take the clothes and hang/air-dry them on the balcony

The 把 pattern is commonly used when:

the speaker does something to an object
the object is affected
the sentence emphasizes the result or placement

A common pattern is:

把 + object + verb + result/location

So here:

把 + 衣服 + 晾 + 在阳台上

Without 把, a more neutral version would be:

衣服晾在阳台上 if describing where the clothes are dried
在阳台上晾衣服 if focusing on the action of drying clothes on the balcony

Using 把 makes it sound more like an instruction or deliberate action.

What does 晾 mean here?

阳台yángtáiyángtái

晾liàngliàng

to hang out to dry

Elon.io is an online learning platform

We have an entire course teaching Chinese grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Chinese now

Here 晾 means to hang out to dry, to air, or to let dry in the open air.

With 衣服, it usually means:

hanging clothes so they can dry
often after washing them

So 晾衣服 is a very common phrase meaning:

to hang the clothes out to dry

It is not exactly the same as 洗衣服 (wash clothes) or 晒衣服 (dry clothes in the sun).

A useful distinction:

晾 = air-dry / hang out to dry
晒 = dry in the sun, expose to sunlight

If the balcony gets sun, either may be possible in some contexts, but 晾衣服 is the everyday expression for hanging laundry to dry.

Why is 在阳台上 placed after 晾?

Because 在阳台上 tells you where the clothes are being hung/dried, and in Chinese, location often comes after the verb when it describes the result or placement of an object.

Here the structure is:

把 + object + verb + location
把衣服晾在阳台上

This means:

do the action 晾
and place the clothes on the balcony

This is especially natural in 把 sentences, because the sentence often ends with the result, direction, or location of the object.

Compare:

把书放在桌子上 = put the book on the table
把衣服晾在阳台上 = hang the clothes on the balcony

Why is there an 上 after 阳台?

上 here means on or on the surface/area of.

So:

阳台 = balcony
阳台上 = on the balcony

Chinese often uses a location noun plus a localizer such as:

上 = on / above
里 = in / inside
下 = under / below

Even when English might just say on the balcony, Chinese usually prefers:

在阳台上

This is very common:

在桌子上 = on the table
在房间里 = in the room
在椅子下 = under the chair

So 上 is not extra; it is part of the natural way Chinese expresses location.

Can I say 把衣服晾在阳台 without 上?

Usually, 在阳台上 is the natural and standard form.

Saying 在阳台 without 上 may sound incomplete or less natural in normal speech, because 阳台 usually takes a localizer when used as a physical location.

So learners should generally say:

在阳台上

The same applies to many nouns referring to places or surfaces:

在桌子上
在床上
在墙上

Some place words do not always need a localizer, but 阳台上 is the safest and most natural choice here.

Is 衣服 singular or plural here?

It can be singular or plural, depending on context.

In Chinese, nouns usually do not change form for singular vs. plural the way English nouns do.

So 衣服 can mean:

a piece of clothing
clothes
the clothes

In this sentence, it most naturally means clothes or the clothes, because hanging clothes out to dry is often plural in real life.

If you needed to be more specific, you could add words like:

一件衣服 = one piece of clothing
这些衣服 = these clothes
那件衣服 = that piece of clothing

Is this sentence a statement or a command?

It can work as either, depending on context and intonation, but it most commonly feels like a command/instruction:

把衣服晾在阳台上。
Hang the clothes on the balcony.

Chinese often leaves out the subject when it is understood. So the sentence may have an implied 你:

(你)把衣服晾在阳台上。

In the right context, it could also describe what someone should do or what one does next, but standing alone, it sounds very much like an instruction.

If you wanted to make it clearly a statement, you could say:

我把衣服晾在阳台上。 = I hang/hung the clothes on the balcony.
她把衣服晾在阳台上。 = She hangs/hung the clothes on the balcony.

Can the word order be changed?

Some changes are possible, but not all of them sound natural.

The original sentence:

把衣服晾在阳台上

is very natural.

Other possible patterns include:

在阳台上晾衣服 = dry/hang clothes on the balcony
- focuses more on the location of the action
衣服晾在阳台上 = the clothes are hung/dried on the balcony
- focuses more on the state/location of the clothes

But you generally should not move things around freely as in English. For example:

晾把衣服在阳台上 = incorrect
把在阳台上衣服晾 = incorrect in this meaning

The 把 sentence has a fairly fixed pattern:

把 + object + verb + complement/location

Why isn’t there a measure word before 衣服?

Because 衣服 here is being used as a general noun, not as a counted item.

In Chinese, measure words are needed when you specify number or quantity, such as:

一件衣服 = one item of clothing
两件衣服 = two items of clothing

But when you talk about clothes in general, no measure word is needed:

洗衣服 = wash clothes
买衣服 = buy clothes
晾衣服 = hang clothes to dry

So 把衣服晾在阳台上 is perfectly normal.

What is the pronunciation of 晾 and is it hard to say?

晾 is pronounced liàng in the fourth tone.

A few pronunciation notes:

l as in English light
iang sounds somewhat like -yahng, but as one syllable
the fourth tone falls sharply: liàng

So it sounds roughly like:

lee-ahng with a falling tone

The whole sentence in pinyin is:

bǎ yīfu liàng zài yángtái shàng

A couple of extra points:

衣服 is pronounced yīfu, and the second syllable is usually neutral tone
阳台 is yángtái, both rising tones
上 here is shàng, fourth tone

Could I use 放 instead of 晾?

Not if you want the specific meaning hang the clothes out to dry.

放 means put/place
晾 means hang/air-dry

So:

把衣服放在阳台上 = put the clothes on the balcony
把衣服晾在阳台上 = hang the clothes on the balcony to dry

The first sentence only says the clothes are placed there. The second tells you the purpose or result: they are being dried.

So 晾 is the better word here.

Does 在 here mean at, in, or on?

Here 在 introduces the location, but it does not by itself fully mean on. The full location phrase is:

在阳台上

Breaking it down:

在 = at/in/on, marking location
阳台 = balcony
上 = on

So together:

在阳台上 = on the balcony

This is a good example of how Chinese often expresses location with two parts:

在 to mark that a location is coming
a localizer like 上 / 里 / 下 to show the spatial relation more precisely

So the meaning of on mostly comes from 上, not from 在 alone.

Your questions are stored by us to improve Elon.io