CHINESE DICTIONARY ENTRY

如影随形

rúyǐngsuíxíng

lit. as the shadow follows the body (idiom)

IN A VIDEO如影随形

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DEFINITIONS & USAGE

Meaning and common use

lit. as the shadow follows the body (idiom)

fig. closely associated with each other; inseparable; to follow relentlessly

REAL CORPUS EXAMPLES

How 如影随形 actually appears in real sentences.

These sentences are copied from the Tatoeba corpus, so they are real usage rather than generated text. 如影随形 appears in 2 of the 89,190 sentences we searched.

心灵纯净时，喜悦便如影随形。xīn líng chún jìng shí， xǐ yuè biàn rú yǐng suí xíng。

When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

人生如梦，如影随形，像个蹩脚的演员，在舞台上虚张声势、矫揉造作一小时，然后便销声匿迹。人生如白痴讲的故事，喧嚣吵杂，却毫无意义。rén shēng rú mèng， rú yǐng suí xíng， xiàng gè bié jiǎo de yǎn yuán， zài wǔ tái shàng xū zhāng shēng shì、 jiǎo róu zào zuò yī xiǎo shí， rán hòu biàn xiāo shēng nì jì。 rén shēng rú bái chī jiǎng de gù shì， xuān xiāo chǎo zá， què háo wú yì yì。

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

COMMON COLLOCATIONS

Words that keep company with 如影随形.

Counted from the same corpus: the word that most often comes directly before, and directly after, 如影随形.

Directly before

便如影随形1

Directly after

No repeated neighbour in the corpus.

ABOUT THIS ENTRY

Where this entry comes from

The HSK level, part of speech, and pronunciation come from the HSK 3.1 vocabulary syllabus. The English definitions come from CC-CEDICT. Corpus sentences, collocations, and the frequency figure come from the Tatoeba Chinese sentence export and are counted rather than written, so nothing on this page is invented. Usage notes and the hand-written examples that appear higher up exist only for a handful of entries.

Definitions from CC-CEDICT, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Vocabulary levels and parts of speech from the HSK 3.1 syllabus. This compiled dictionary is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

COMMON QUESTIONS

About 如影随形

What does 如影随形 mean in Chinese?

如影随形 (rúyǐngsuíxíng) means lit. as the shadow follows the body (idiom).

How do you pronounce 如影随形?

如影随形 is pronounced rúyǐngsuíxíng.

Is 如影随形 an HSK word?

如影随形 is on the list of the HSK 3.1 vocabulary syllabus.

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