(yīn) - because, cause, reason in Mandarin

yīn

Traditional: 因

#1178 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

because, cause, reason

Word origin

A pictograph of a person lying on a mat, the original sense of a mat or foundation, hence a cause or basis. It now means because or reason.

Origin: pictograph
Root: a person on a mat, the underlying cause

Stroke order

因

Examples

雨yǔ。

The match was cancelled because of rain.

。

Take leave because of illness.

。

Everything happens for a reason.

业yè。

Closed for a day for certain reasons.

京jīng。

He moved to Beijing because of work.

因 (yīn) means because, cause, reason. It mostly appears in compounds like 因为 and 原因 rather than alone.

Where this fits

The 1,000 most common Mandarin words

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Appears in 4 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 因.

因为yīn wèibecause, since 原因yuán yīnreason, cause, motive 是因为shì yīn wèiit is because, it is due to 因此yīn cǐtherefore, thus

Used in

Grammar articles

(11)

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Mandarin · Free printables

因: worksheet, infographic and listicle

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This word is part of lesson 24.