(shěn pàn) - to try in court, a trial in Mandarin
shěnpànTraditional: 審判
Translation
to try in court, a trial
Word origin
A compound of 审 (shěn, to examine carefully) and 判 (pàn, to judge, to decide), so to examine and then decide.
- Origin
- compound
- Root
- 审 (shěn, to examine) + 判 (pàn, to judge)
Stroke order
审
判
Examples
。
The court begins the trial tomorrow.
。
He will face a public trial.
。
The trial took three months.
。
The judge tried the case very fairly.
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The result of the trial will be announced tomorrow.
审判 (shěn pàn) is the formal legal act of trying someone: a court hearing the case and reaching a verdict. It works as a verb, 法院审判他, and as a noun, 公开审判, without changing shape.
The word belongs to news reports and legal writing rather than conversation. Related terms you will meet beside it are 审判长 for the presiding judge, 一审 and 二审 for the first and second instance of a case, and 判 on its own for handing down a sentence: 判三年 means sentenced to three years.
The trap is the moral sense of English "judge". 审判 is institutional, and using it for a person forming an opinion about someone is wrong: for that Chinese says 评价 (píng jià) or 说别人的不是. There is one exception worth knowing, since religious texts use 最后的审判 for the Last Judgement, which is exactly why the word feels heavy.
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审判: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "审判" (to try in court, a trial): 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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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 47.