(zhì yú) - as for, as to in Mandarin
zhìyúTraditional: 至於
Translation
as for, as to
Word origin
至 (zhì) means to arrive or reach, and pictures an arrow coming down to land on the ground. 于 (yú) is the classical preposition at or to, so the pair literally reads as reaching as far as.
- Origin
- compound
- Root
- 至 (zhì, to reach) + 于 (yú, at, to)
Stroke order
至
于
Examples
，。
As for the price, we will talk about it tomorrow.
，，。
I agree with your view; as for what he thinks, I do not know.
，。
As for this matter, you need not worry.
，。
He is only a little tired; it is not so bad that he would fall ill.
，。
As for me, I prefer tea.
至于 (zhì yú) hands the conversation over to a new topic. It sits at the front of a clause and marks the thing you are turning to next: as for the money, as for the weather, as for me. Written Chinese loves it, and it makes a spoken paragraph sound organised rather than rambling.
It has a second life in the pattern 不至于, which means that something does not go so far as that. 还不至于生病 says the person is tired but not ill enough to worry about. This use is extremely common in speech and it is the one learners meet in films.
The trap is mixing it up with 关于 (guān yú, about) and 对于 (duì yú, regarding). Those two introduce the subject matter of a whole sentence. 至于 does something narrower: it switches to a topic you have parked until now, so it needs an earlier topic to switch away from. Opening a conversation with 至于 sounds like walking in halfway through your own argument.
Where this fits
Used in
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至于: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "至于" (as for, as to): 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 56.