What does 是 mean in Chinese?
是 (shì) means to be (followed by substantives only).
CHINESE DICTIONARY ENTRY
是
to be (followed by substantives only)
IN A VIDEO是
See this word with its surrounding sentence, pinyin, translation, and timestamp.
DEFINITIONS & USAGE
Meaning and common use
01
to be (followed by substantives only)
02
correct; right; true
03
(respectful acknowledgement of a command) very well
04
(adverb for emphatic assertion)
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. Usage notes and example sentences are hand-written, so they exist for only 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 是
How do you pronounce 是?
是 is pronounced shì.
Is 是 an HSK word?
是 is on the HSK 1 list of the HSK 3.1 vocabulary syllabus.
What part of speech is 是?
是 is used as a 动词 (verb) in Chinese.
SEE IT IN CONTEXT
Turn your own Chinese video into a searchable learning file.
Keep English optional, place pinyin above Hanzi, and export subtitles named after your video.