是
Meanings
CC-CEDICT
- 1.to be (followed by substantives only)
- 2.correct; right; true
- 3.(respectful acknowledgement of a command) very well
- 4.(adverb for emphatic assertion)
- 1.variant of 是[shì]
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Wiktionary
- 1.this; this thing
- 2.a pronoun that refers to an anteposed object of the verb, usually introduced by the a topicalizer or constrative like 唯 in the form of 唯 …… 是 + V, adding emphasis to the object of the verb. Compare 之 (zhī), which as a pronoun can also refers to the topic as the object, and in earlier forms was also placed before the verb.
- 3.to be
- 4.indicating that the subject and object are the same.
- 5.indicating that the subject has the qualities described by a noun or noun phrase.
- 6.indicating a place being occupied by the object, where the place forms the subject.
- 7.a particle emphasizing the word following it.
- 8.a particle showing agreement. In this meaning, 是 is stressed. truly; indeed.
- 9.a particle used in an alternative or a negative question
- 10.yes; right
- 11.true; correct
- 12.a surname
- 13.Pronominal prefix
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Etymology
“This [an independent pronoun] > this, it [object recapitulation], be right, correct, so > to be, indeed”. The modern copulative sense only emerged by the Eastern Han dynasty (Dobson, 1964; Norman, 1988; Zürcher, 2013), and gradually replaced the archaic 唯 (OC *ɢʷi, “to be”) and the classical copulative construction with 也 (OC *laːlʔ). This was due to the lack of a left-branching copula as archaic 唯 shifted into a contrasting and restricting particle, as well as its frequent use in presentational copulative constructions, often in the form of "A, 是 B 也" ("A, this is B"), which led to it being gradually reinterpreted as the copula instead of 也. Also note the semantic opposition with literary negative copula 非 (OC *pɯl) as in "right" and "wrong", which emerged by the Warring States period from the frequent collocation of the expression "是 X 也, 非 Y 也" (This is X, not Y) (Pulleyblank, 1995) . To understand this development, compare 之 (OC *tjɯ, “him, it, this > possessive”), 其 (OC *kɯ, “he, his, its > dialectal possessive”). Compare French c'est which in colloquial speech often replaces copula est. From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-daj ~ m-di (“that; this”). In Chinese, cognate with 寔 (OC *djɯɡ, “this (subject contrastive)”), 實 (OC *ɦliɡ, “this (subject contrastive)”), 之 (OC *tjɯ, “this; him; her; it (oblique)”), 諟 (OC *djeʔ, “to examine, to consider”). In Tibeto-Burman, cognate with Tibetan དེ (de, “that”), Jingpho dai, ndai (“this”), and Burmese ဒီ (di, “this”).
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Stroke order
Components
Components from cjk-decomp · MIT
Example sentences
是我。
It's me.
是你吗？
Is it you?
他是誰？
Who is he?
是我的。
It's mine.
他是誰？
Who's he?
她是谁？
Who's she?
Sentences from Tatoeba · CC-BY 2.0 FR
More examples & usage (AI)
Synonyms
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Derived terms
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA