Definition
老家 (lǎo jiā) means 'hometown' with a strong sense of one's ancestral home or family roots — the place your family comes from, even if you didn't grow up there. It's more personal and colloquial than 家乡 (jiā xiāng, general hometown) and less formal than 故乡 (gù xiāng, literary). Unlike 籍贯 (jí guàn, official registered birthplace) or 祖籍 (zǔ jí, distant ancestral origin), 老家 is the everyday word for the place you call 'home' in your family history.
noun
one's hometown (especially one's ancestral home)
Easily confused
- 劳驾láo jiàsound-alikeexcuse me (used to politely ask for a favor or to get someone's attention)
Examples
- 。Wǒ měinián Chūnjié dōu huí lǎo jiā.I go back to my hometown every Spring Festival.
- 老家。Tā de lǎo jiā zài Shāndōng nóngcūn.His hometown is in a village in Shandong.
- ，老家。Wǒ suīrán zhù zài dà chéngshì, dàn lǎo jiā háishì wǒ zuì xiǎng huíqù de dìfāng.Even though I live in a big city, my hometown is still the place I most want to go back to.
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