HSK 5 · Ideas

事物 shìwù “thing” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 事物 means

  1. thing
  2. object

How to say 事物

  • 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 fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale物wù4th tone, falling

事物 in a sentence

  1. 她总是尝试新事物。

    Tā zǒngshì chángshì xīn shìwù.

    She is always trying new things.

    Sentence #1661555 from Tatoeba

  2. 人们通常不喜欢他们不理解的事物。

    Rénmen tōngcháng bù xǐhuan tāmen bù lǐjiě de shìwù.

    People usually don’t like what they don’t understand.

    Sentence #4859712 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我们可以用望远镜来观察远方的事物。

    Wǒmen kěyǐ yòng wàngyuǎnjìng lái guānchá yuǎnfāng de shìwù.

    We can use a telescope to observe things far away.

    Sentence #1269868 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 事物 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 物 (wù) with each of its parts in a different colour
物wùthing
  • 牛cow · niúMeaning part
  • 勿must not · wùSound part

牛 hints at the meaning (cow); 勿 (wù) hints at the sound. Compare it with wù.

Memory aidAn ox 牛, which the oldest Chinese dictionary calls the largest of things, with 勿 (wù) for the sound: a thing.

How to write 事物

事 8 strokes · 物 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 事物

Words with 事

Words with 物

More words: Ideas & Concepts

FAQs

事物 (shìwù) means “thing” or “object”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it shìwù: shì with a 4th tone, then wù with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 事物 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type shiwu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 事物 from the suggestions. Typing shiwu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
事物 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.