Kilo Lingo

(gù shì) - story, tale, narrative in Mandarin

shì

Traditional: 故事

Line drawing of 故事
Coloured illustration of 故事
HSK 4
#420 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

story, tale, narrative

Word origin

A compound of 故 (gu) 'old, former; reason', which has the 攵 'action' radical with 古 phonetic, and 事 (shi) 'matter, affair'. Literally 'old matters', hence 'a story'.

Origin
compound
Root
故 (gu, 'former', 攵 action radical + 古 phonetic) + 事 (shi, 'matter, affair')

Stroke order

Stroke order for 故

Stroke order for 事

Examples

Tell me a story.

This is a true story.

Children like listening to stories.

Grandfather tells the most interesting stories.

duǎn

There are many short stories in this book.

故事 (gù shì) - story, tale, narrative.

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This word is part of lesson 9.