(shì): matter, thing, item

(shì) is a Chinese character meaning “matter.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), with radical (hook). It ranks #58 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation
HSK 1Radical: hook8 strokesFrequency #58

Definitions

  1. matter
  2. thing
  3. item

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounshì qingaffair2
noungù shìold practice3
nounshì shífact5
nounshì jiànincident5
nounshì yèundertaking5
nounshì gùaccident5
nountóng shìcolleague3
verbméi shìit's not important1
noundà shìmajor event5
nounshì wùthing5
nounshì xiānin advance5
verbcóng shìto go for5
nounshì wù(political, economic etc) affairs6
verbbàn shìto handle (affairs)4
nounshì hòuafter the event6
nounrén shìpersonnel6
nounsài shìcompetition (e.g. sporting)6
nounshì xiàngmatter6
nounqǐ shìannouncement (written, on billboard, letter, newspaper or website)6
nounxǐ shìhappy occasion6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
hǎo shìgood action, deed, thing or work (also sarcastic, "a fine thing indeed")
huài shìbad thing
chū shìto have an accident
jūn shìmilitary affairs
běn shìsource material
gòng shìto work together
cǐ shìthis matter
jí shìurgent matter
gōng shìwork-related matters
chǔn shìfolly
guài shìstrange thing
chà shìpoor
mín shìcivil case
fán shìeverything
shàn shìgood deeds
100
Total compounds
10
As first character
90
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 10 as the first character, 90 as the last, and 0 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.7181,100,850 co-occurrences
jiàn
0.6941,112,754 co-occurrences
dǒng
0.663384,371 co-occurrences
xíng
0.527163,440 co-occurrences
jūn
0.480386,766 co-occurrences
0.480219,084 co-occurrences
0.45270,074 co-occurrences
bàn
0.440112,314 co-occurrences
0.439376,338 co-occurrences
qíng
0.435241,989 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (66)

便biànyíxíngshìHSK 3+

to act at one's discretion

phrase
bīng jiā cháng shìHSK 6+

commonplace in military operations (idiom)

phrase
bùxǐngrénshìHSK 4+

to lose consciousness; to be unconscious

phrase
cǎocǎoliǎoshìHSK 3+

to deal with a matter carelessly

phrase
cǐ shì tǐ dàHSK 4+

see 茲事體大|兹事体大[zi1 shi4 ti3 da4]

phrase
dōngchuāngshìfāHSK 4+

to come to light; to be exposed

verb
duōguǎnxiánshìHSK 5+

to bother to interfere others' business; to have an oar in everyman's boat; to meddle in other people's business

phrase
duōshìzhīqiūHSK 4+

troubled period; eventful times

phrase
fēngliúyùnshìHSK 7+

love affair

phrase
fūyǎnliǎoshìHSK 7+

to work halfheartedly; to gloss things over; to go through the motions

phrase
gōnggòng shìyèHSK 3+

public work

noun
gōngshìgōngbànHSK 3+

to do official business according to official rules; to handle matters without bias and favouritism

phrase

Showing 12 of 66 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们字的发音和笔顺。

lǎo shī jiào wǒ men shì zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .

The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of the character "事."

Irna ChineseFeb 2026

沙特阿拉伯前官员:任何对伊朗的军打击都将是一场代价高昂的豪赌

shā tè ā lā bó qián guān yuán : rèn hé duì yī lǎng de jūn shì dǎ jī dōu jiāng shì yī chǎng dài jià gāo áng de háo dǔ

Former Saudi Arabian official: Any military strike on Iran will be a costly gamble

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

弗吉尼亚州里士满发生枪击件 两人死亡

弗 jí ní yà zhōu lǐ shì mǎn fā shēng qiāng jī shì jiàn liǎng rén sǐ wáng

Two people were killed in a shooting in Richmond, Virginia

東方日報Feb 2026

美国突在约旦军基地 部署大量战机

měi guó tū zài yuē dàn jūn shì jī dì bù shǔ dà liàng zhàn jī

The United States suddenly deployed a large number of fighter jets at Jordanian military bases

百度新闻Feb 2026

【城】外滩开关式人墙再次启用,分流客流确保平...

chéng shì wài tān kāi guān shì rén qiáng zài cì qǐ yòng , fēn liú kè liú què bǎo píng . . .

The Bund switch-type human wall was reopened to divert passenger flow to ensure leveling...

百度新闻Feb 2026

未必是坏!南马降级成精英标 马拉松将回归体验本质

wèi bì shì huài shì ! nán mǎ jiàng jí chéng jīng yīng biāo mǎ lā sōng jiāng huí guī tǐ yàn běn zhì

It's not necessarily a bad thing! South Malaysia is relegated to an elite marathon and will return to the essence of experience

Tatoeba

有什么是我该做的吗?

Yǒu shénme shì shì wǒ gāi zuò de ma?

Is there anything I must do?

Tatoeba

为什么你要对你没做过的表示抱歉?

Wèishénme nǐ yào duì nǐ méi zuò guo de shì biǎoshì bàoqiàn?

Why say sorry for something you haven't even done?

Tatoeba

你竟然做出那样的来,你还是人吗?

Nǐ jìngrán zuòchū nàyàng de shì lái, nǐ háishi rén ma?

It is wicked of you to do such things.

Tatoeba

好的,您想咨询什么情?

Hǎo de, nín xiǎng zīxún shénmeshì qíng?

OK, what would you like advice on?

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the hook radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced shì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 事 (shì) mean in Chinese?
事 (shì) primarily means "matter." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #58 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 事 have?
事 is written with 8 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 事?
The radical associated with 事 is 亅 (hook). This radical appears in many characters related to hook.
What are common words containing 事?
Common words with 事 include: 事情 (shì qing, "affair"); 故事 (gù shì, "old practice"); 事实 (shì shí, "fact"); 事件 (shì jiàn, "incident"); 好事 (hǎo shì, "good action, deed, thing or work (also sarcastic, "a fine thing indeed")"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 事 (shì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shì: 师 (teacher), 十 (ten), 时 (time, hour), 识 (to know, knowledge), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 事 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 事 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.