Kilo Lingo

(shì) - matter, affair, thing (abstract) in Mandarin

shì

Traditional: 事

Line drawing of 事
Coloured illustration of 事
HSK 2
#64 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

matter, affair, thing (abstract)

Word origin

事 (shì) means 'matter, affair'. It is an early pictograph related to 史 and 吏, depicting a hand holding an implement or banner, associated with conducting business or official duty, from which the sense of an affair or task developed.

Origin
pictograph
Root
hand holding an implement (cognate with 史 scribe and 吏 official)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 事

事

Examples

？

What is the matter? / What do you need?

。

This matter is very important.

。

I have a lot of things to do today.

。

I will handle this matter properly.

？

What has happened?

Appears in 13 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 事.

事情shì qíngmatter, affair, thing没事méi shìit's fine, no matter, nothing wrong怎么回事zěn me huí shìwhat's going on, what's the matter故事gù shìstory, tale, narrative事实shì shífact, reality事实上shì shí shàngin fact, as a matter of fact有事yǒu shìto have something to do, to be busy事件shì jiànincident, event, affair回事huí shìmatter, what is going on事儿shì érmatter, business, thing好事hǎo shìgood thing, good deed, happy event同事tóng shìcolleague, co-worker做事zuò shìto do things, to handle matters, to work

Used in

Stories

(10)

Grammar articles

(11)

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This word is part of lesson 2.