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zǒu

The moment your foot leaves this spot: 走

The picture A foot lifting off this spot and carrying you away from it. 走 leaves this spot and moves on; 留 does not leave, and stays right where it is.

Core verbs

Where the picture shows up in

  1. leave the place

    时间不早了,我先了。

    shíjiān bù zǎo le, wǒ xiān zǒu le

    It's getting late — I should head off.

    Someone picking up their bag, rising, and going out the door, leaving the chair empty behind them

    我走了 means 'I'm off', not 'I am walking'. It's what you say on your way out.

  2. get there on foot

    从这儿十分钟就到。

    cóng zhèr zǒu shí fēnzhōng jiù dào

    It's ten minutes' walk from here.

    Footprints stamping one after another from here to that building, ten minutes of them in a line

  3. the road doesn't get through

    这条路不通。

    zhè tiáo lù zǒu bu tōng

    This road's a dead end.

    Walking to the end of the alley and finding a wall where your feet can go no further

  4. the thing left with someone

    我的伞被人拿了。

    wǒ de sǎn bèi rén názǒu le

    Someone's walked off with my umbrella.

    Your umbrella lifted from the stand by someone else's hand and carried out the door

    拿走 is picking it up and leaving with it. Adding 走 supplies the ending: it's gone.

  5. the machine keeps going

    这块表不了。

    zhè kuài biǎo bù zǒu le

    This watch has stopped.

    A second hand that had been circling without pause stopping dead on one mark and going no further

All of it in one picture

走 is a foot leaving this spot and carrying you off. A person leaves the chair and they are off; footprints line up and you got there on foot; the feet can go no further and the road is a dead end. A thing goes out the door in someone else's hand and it has been walked off with; a second hand keeps advancing and the watch is running. So under every 走 there is the same picture: leaving this spot and moving on.

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