HSK 2 · Common Things

事情 shìqing “matter” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 事情 means

  1. matter, affair
  2. thing
  3. business

Measure word 件 jiàn or 桩 zhuāng · 一件事情 yí jiàn shìqing

How to say 事情

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale事shì4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own情qingneutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

事情 in a sentence

  1. 我有很重要的事情要跟你说。

    Wǒ yǒu hěn zhòngyào de shìqing yào gēn nǐ shuō.

    I have something very important to tell you.

    Sentence #11702401 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我最近有很多事情要做。

    Wǒ zuìjìn yǒu hěn duō shìqing yào zuò.

    I’ve had a lot to do lately.

    Sentence #4649774 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 你知道发生了什么事情吗?

    Nǐ zhīdao fāshēng le shénme shìqing ma?

    Do you know what happened?

    Sentence #8839834 from Tatoeba

How 事情 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 事 (shì) with each of its parts in a different colour
事shìmatter
  • 一one · yī
  • 口mouth · kǒu
  • 彐snout · jì
  • 亅hook · jué
The character 情 (qíng) with each of its parts in a different colour
情qíngfeelings; emotion; sentiment; passionlight in 事情
  • 忄heart form of 心 · xīnMeaning part
  • 青blue-green · qīngSound part

忄 hints at the meaning (heart); 青 (qīng) hints at the sound. Compare it with qing.

How to write 事情

事 8 strokes · 情 11 strokes

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

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

Words related to 事情

Words with 事

Words with 情

More words: Everyday Things

FAQs

事情 (shìqing) means “matter, affair” or “thing”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it shìqing: shì with a 4th tone, then qing with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 事情 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Use 件 (jiàn) or 桩 (zhuāng). For example, one matter is 一件事情 (yí jiàn shìqing).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type shiqing with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 事情 from the suggestions. Typing shiqing into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
事情 is an HSK 2 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.