I'm confused about the use of 这些地方 in the following dialogue in my Chinese text book (click for larger image):

Chinese dialogue

I'll transcribe it below:


And here's my translation:

Mark: When you get a health check, what is checked?
Ding Bo: Lots. Ears, eyes, nose, teeth, also stomach, and so on.
Mark: In the past, my tummy has been always painful.
Ding Bo: It could be your stomach that's painful. You go to the hospital for a check [suggestive particle].
Mark: When you get a health check, are arms, hands, feet inspected?
Ding Bo: These places generally have no big problems, have a look and it'll be okay.

In particular, I'm unclear if "these places" (这些地方) means the places you go to get 体检 (health checks), or if "these places" means these places on your body (胳膊，手，脚).

Question: What does 这些地方 mean in this dialogue about health checks?

  • "这些地方" refers to "胳膊，手，脚" mentioned in the Mark's question. – user4072 Nov 11 '17 at 13:58
  • '这些地方' means 'these areas' – Tang Ho Nov 11 '17 at 14:24
  • health talk：我这个 地方 有点疼 – user6065 Nov 11 '17 at 16:03
  • You are very courteous to link many words to the dictionary! – Blaszard Nov 11 '17 at 20:22
  • @songyuanyao That is an answer. Maybe you could spend a few minutes writing it as an answer? – Blaszard Nov 11 '17 at 20:32

指示代词 (demonstrative pronoun) (like "这些") is usually used in place of things mentioned in the context, to make the sentence terse and economical.

So "这些地方" refers to "胳膊，手，脚" mentioned in Mark's question, the sentence is equivalent as:


In this context, '这些地方'(these places) refers to 'areas' on a human body.

For example:

'upper arm area' (上臂一带)

'left wrist and left lower palm area' (左腕及左掌底部一带)

'neck and spine area '(颈椎一带)


Putting 这些地方 in this setting is not that good technically. It's okay in spoken.

这些部位 is more technical for 'body parts'. So, 这些部位一般没有大问题...

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