Kilo Lingo

(shēng huó) - life, to live, livelihood in Mandarin

shēnghuó

Traditional: 生活

Line drawing of 生活
Coloured illustration of 生活
HSK 3
#229 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

life, to live, livelihood

Word origin

生活 (shēng huó) pairs 生 (shēng), 'to be born' or 'to live', a pictograph of a sprouting plant, with 活 (huó), 'to live' or 'alive', the water radical 氵 with 舌 as phonetic. The compound means 'life', 'to live' or 'livelihood'.

Origin
compound
Root
生 (shēng, life) + 活 (huó, 氵water radical + 舌 phonetic)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 生

Stroke order for 活

Examples

Life is beautiful.

His life is very busy.

Life requires hard work.

Life in the city is very convenient.

退tuì

His life has become much more relaxed after retirement.

生活 (shēng huó) means life, to live, livelihood. It is used as a noun in everyday Mandarin speech.

Used in

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This word is part of lesson 5.