HSK 5 · Education

常识 chángshí “common sense” in Chinese

Traditional 常識

What 常识 means

  1. common sense
  2. general knowledge

How to say 常识

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale常cháng2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale识shí2nd tone, rising

常识 in a sentence

  1. 她缺乏常识。

    Tā quēfá chángshí.

    She lacks common sense.

    Sentence #1746045 from Tatoeba

How 常识 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 常 (cháng) with each of its parts in a different colour
常chángalways
  • 尚still · shàngSound part
  • 巾napkin · jīnMeaning part

巾 hints at the meaning (napkin); 尚 (shàng) hints at the sound. Compare it with cháng.

Memory aidCloth 巾 with 尚 (shàng) for the sound. Its first meaning was a skirt; now it means “often, usual”.

The character 识 (shí) with each of its parts in a different colour
识shíto know
  • 讠speech form of 言 · yánMeaning part
  • 只only · zhǐSound part

讠 hints at the meaning (speech); 只 (zhǐ) hints at the sound. Compare it with shí.

How to write 常识

常 11 strokes · 识 7 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

常识 (chángshí) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 常识 (chángshí). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 常识

Words with 常

非常fēicháng · extremely常cháng · often经常jīngcháng · often常见chángjiàn · common常用chángyòng · commonly used常常chángcháng · often正常zhèngcháng · regular平常píngcháng · ordinary日常rìcháng · day-to-day通常tōngcháng · regular

Words with 识

认识rènshi · to know (someone)知识zhīshi · knowledge识别shíbié · to identify意识yìshi · consciousness见多识广jiànduōshíguǎng · well-informed and experienced

More words: Education & Learning

本科běnkē · undergraduate course标点biāodiǎn · punctuation测验cèyàn · test成语chéngyǔ · idiom词汇cíhuì · vocabulary地理dìlǐ · geography辅导fǔdǎo · to give guidance作弊zuòbì · to cheat (in an exam)

FAQs

常识 (chángshí) means “common sense” or “general knowledge”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it chángshí: cháng with a 2nd tone, then shí with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 常识 is written 常識. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type changshi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 常识 from the suggestions. Typing changshi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
常识 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.