v.
To revolve in a spiral and return to the starting point. To return, go back, or reply. A swirling path inside a box that loops around and comes back out.
回
m.
A single turn or revolution of a cycle. A counting unit for times, occasions, or sections (chapters). A square with a smaller square inside, like a path curling back on itself.
Common Usage & Traps
- 回家 — go home / return home
- 回北京 — go back to Beijing
- 回学校 — go back to school
- 回上海 — return to Shanghai
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回去上海回上海回去 already means go back there; a place name cannot follow it.
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回我的家回家 / 回我家Understandable but stiff. 回家 is the normal phrase; use 回我家 only to specify my place.
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去上海 (when you mean return to your base)回上海去上海 means go to Shanghai, not back home. If Shanghai is your base, 回上海 is the right choice.
If Shanghai is your home base, can you still say 去上海?
Use 回 only when it is your home base; otherwise use 去.
回 means returning to a place you belong to or treat as home base. 去 means simply going somewhere, with no return implied. So 回上海 says Shanghai is her base. 去上海 just says Shanghai is the destination. “但是她可能会坐火车回上海。” (But she might take the train back to Shanghai.) ── [《去上海》](/read/train-or-plane-to-shanghai#s8)
| Dimension | Natural | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | 回上海 = go back to Shanghai | 去上海 = go to Shanghai, not back |
| Home base | 回上海 if Shanghai is your base | 去上海 if Shanghai is not your base |
| Story context | 回上海 fits the character | 去上海 would drop the return idea |
Why does 回去上海 sound wrong when 回上海 sounds fine?
回去 already means go back there; it cannot take a place name after it.
回去 is a direction word that already means go back there. It does not need a place name after it. If you name the place, put it right after 回. So you say 回上海, not 回去上海.
| Dimension | Natural | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Place named | 回上海 | 回去上海 |
| No place named | 我明天回去 | 我明天回去上海 |
| Meaning | 回去 = go back there | 回去 + place = broken |
Can you say 回我家, or is 回家 the only right way?
回家 is the default; 回我家 is fine only when specifying whose home.
Chinese usually says 回家 without 我的 when home is obvious. 回我家 is not wrong if you need to distinguish my home from yours. 回我的家 sounds stiff and over-explained.
| Dimension | Natural | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Default home | 我要回家。 | 我要回我的家。 |
| Specify my place | 先回我家，再去你家。 | 先回我的家，再去你的家。 |
| Grammar check | 回我家 is okay | 回我家 is never wrong |
Featured in Story Deep Dive
Follow how this word unfolds across the narrative arc of this graded story.
Meet Xiao Shang, who is heading back to Shanghai. She compares two ways to travel and tells us why she prefers the slower one. This story helps you practice comparing transportation in simple Chinese.
- Scene #1
但是她可能会坐火车 回 上海。
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