Translingual

Stroke order

Stroke order

Han character

是 (radical 72 日+5, 9 strokes, cangjie input 日一卜人 (AMYO), four-corner 6080₁, composition ⿱日⿱一龰)

Derived characters

• 提

References

• KangXi: page 493, character 26
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 13859
• Dae Jaweon: page 858, character 6
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1497, character 5
• Unihan data for U+662F

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 是
Bronze inscriptions	Bamboo and silk script	Large seal script

Ideogrammic compound (會意) : 早 + 正, logic of compound unclear. It has been suggested that 早 looks like a spoon, so 是 may have been the original character for 匙 (OC *dje, “spoon”). As early as in late bronze inscriptions, 早 was replaced with 日 to give 昰, which carried over to the small seal script, and Shuowen considers this a compound of 日 + 正 (i.e. “right” as the upright sun).

Etymology

“This [an independent pronoun] > be right, correct, to be, so”. From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-daj ~ *m-di ‎(“that; this”). Cognate with Tibetan དེ ‎(de, “that”), Jingpho dai, ndai ‎(“this”).

Cognate with 寔 (OC *djɯɡ, “this”), 實 (OC *ɦliɡ, “this”) and 諟 (OC *djeʔ, “to examine, to consider”).

Pronunciation

Definitions

是

1. (obsolete) this; this thing
   • 是日  ―  shìrì  ―  this day
   • 是可忍，孰不可忍？ [Classical Chinese, trad. and simp.]
     From: The Analects of Confucius, circa 475 – 221 BCE

     Shì kě rěn, shú bù kě rěn? [Pinyin]

     If this can be tolerated, what cannot?

2. (copulative) to be.
   1. indicating that the subject and object are the same.

      泰晤士河是英國第二長的河流。 [MSC, trad.]

      泰晤士河是英国第二长的河流。 [MSC, simp.]

      Tàiwùshìhé shì Yīngguó dì'èr cháng de héliú. [Pinyin]

      The River Thames is the second longest river in the UK.

   2. indicating that the subject has the qualities described by a noun or noun phrase.

      我是老師 / 我是老师  ―  wǒ shì lǎoshī  ―  I am a teacher

      我是中國人 / 我是中国人  ―  wǒ shì zhōngguórén  ―  I am Chinese.

   3. indicating a place being occupied by the object, where the place forms the subject.

      房子前面是禾場。 / 房子前面是禾场。  ―  Fángzǐ qiánmiàn shì héchǎng.  ―  The threshing floor is in front of the house.

      到處都是 / 到处都是  ―  dàochù dōu shì  ―  to be everywhere

3. a particle emphasizing the word following it.

   我是昨天買的票。 / 我是昨天买的票。  ―  Wǒ shì zuótiān mǎi de piào.  ―  It was yesterday when I bought the ticket.

   我買票是在昨天。 / 我买票是在昨天。  ―  Wǒ mǎi piào shì zài zuótiān.  ―  It was yesterday when I bought the ticket.

4. a particle showing agreement. In this meaning, 是 is stressed. truly; indeed.

   天氣是冷。 / 天气是冷。  ―  Tiānqì shì lěng.  ―  It is indeed cold.

   是，長官。 / 是，长官。  ―  Shì, zhǎngguān.  ―  Yes, sir.

5. (only in compounds) true, correct
   • 不是  ―  bùshì  ―  fault; mistake; wrongdoing
   • 你說得是 / 你说得是  ―  nǐ shuō de shì  ―  What you said is right
   • 各行其是  ―  gè xíng qí shì  ―  to have each going his own way, i.e., doing what he considers right
   • 共商國是 / 共商国是  ―  gòng shāng guó shì  ―  to discuss national affairs (This is a fossil word from Ancient Chinese where 是 originally means "what is right (for the country)", i.e., "laws and policies")
6. A surname​.

Usage notes

Synonyms

Compounds

References

• (Cantonese) Multi-function Chinese Character Database (漢語多功能字庫)

Japanese

Kanji

(common “Jōyō” kanji)

1. justice, right

Readings

• Goon: ぜ (ze)
• Kan’on: し (shi)
• Kun: これ (kore), この (kono), ここ (koko)
• Nanori: これ (kore), すなお (sunao), ただし (tadashi), つな (tsuna), ゆき (yuki), よし (yoshi)

Korean

Hanja

是 • ‎(si)
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 시 (McCune-Reischauer: si, Yale: si)

• Name (hangeul): 바를()

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Vietnamese

Han character

是 (thị)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.