HSK 4 · Verbs

发生 fāshēng “to happen” in Chinese

Traditional 發生

What 发生 means

  1. to happen
  2. to occur
  3. to take place
  4. to break out
  5. to arise (e.g. 发生问题 “a problem arises”)

How to say 发生

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale发fā1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale生shēng1st tone, high and level

发生 in a sentence

  1. 公共汽车上发生什么了?

    Gōnggòng qìchē shàng fāshēng shénme le?

    What happened on the bus?

    Sentence #403613 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 你永远不知道会发生什么。

    Nǐ yǒngyuǎn bù zhīdao huì fāshēng shénme.

    You never know what might happen.

    Sentence #4459714 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 什么时候发生的?

    Shénme shíhou fāshēng de?

    When did it happen?

    Sentence #5382963 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 发生 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 发 (fā) drawn as one shape
发fāto send out

发 is a single shape of 5 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

The character 生 (shēng) drawn as one shape
生shēngto grow; to give birth; to produce

生 is a single shape of 5 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidA shoot growing up out of the soil 土: to grow, to be born.

How to write 发生

发 5 strokes · 生 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 发生

Words with 发

Words with 生

More words: Common Verbs

FAQs

发生 (fāshēng) means “to happen” or “to occur”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it fāshēng: fā with a 1st tone, then shēng with a 1st 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, 发生 is written 發生. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type fasheng with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 发生 from the suggestions. Typing fasheng into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
发生 is an HSK 4 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.