Kilo Lingo

(shāng) - wound, injury; to injure, to hurt in Mandarin

shāng

Traditional: 傷

#2026 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

wound, injury; to injure, to hurt

Word origin

The traditional form 傷 is phono-semantic: the person radical 亻 gives the sense and the right-hand element supplies the sound, reduced in the simplified 伤.

Origin
phonetic
Root
亻 (rén, person) + 昜 (yáng, phonetic)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 伤

Examples

He has a cut on his hand.

This wound will take a few days to heal.

Be careful not to hurt yourself.

Your words hurt her feelings.

The doctor said the injury is not serious.

伤 (shāng) is both the wound and the act of wounding. As a noun it takes 道 (dào) for a cut or gash and 处 (chù) for an injured spot; as a verb it usually appears with a result, as in 伤到 (shāng dào, to injure) or inside 受伤 (shòushāng, to be injured).

It stretches easily to emotional damage. 伤心 (shāngxīn) is heartbroken, 伤感 (shānggǎn) is wistful, and 伤了她的心 is exactly the English "hurt her feelings".

The trap is reaching for 伤 alone where a Chinese speaker would use a compound. To say you got hurt, say 我受伤了 (wǒ shòushāng le), not 我伤了.

Where this fits

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Mandarin · Free printables

伤: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "伤" (wound, injury; to injure, to hurt): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is part of lesson 41.