HSK 4 · Time

暂时 zànshí “temporary” in Chinese

Traditional 暫時

What 暂时 means

  1. temporary
  2. provisional
  3. for the time being

How to say 暂时

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale暂zàn4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale时shí2nd tone, rising

暂时 in a sentence

  1. 暂时不需要，谢谢。

    Zànshí bù xūyào, xièxie.

    I don’t need it for now, thanks.

    Sentence #11454822 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他们说情况只是暂时的。

    Tāmen shuō qíngkuàng zhǐshì zànshí de.

    They said the situation was only temporary.

    Sentence #5911616 from Tatoeba

  3. 对不起，您拨打的用户暂时无法接通。

    Duìbuqǐ, nín bōdǎ de yònghù zànshí wúfǎ jiētōng.

    Sorry, the number you have dialled cannot be reached at the moment.

    Sentence #497299 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 暂时 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 暂 (zàn) with each of its parts in a different colour
暂zàntemporary
  • 斩to chop · zhǎnSound part
  • 日sun · rìMeaning part

日 hints at the meaning (sun); 斩 (zhǎn) hints at the sound. Compare it with zàn.

The character 时 (shí) with each of its parts in a different colour
时shío’clock
  • 日sun · rìMeaning part
  • 寸inch · cùn

Memory aidThe sun 日 marks the time of day. In the full form 時, 寺 (sì) gave the sound.

How to write 暂时

暂 12 strokes · 时 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 暂时

Words with 暂

暂且zànqiě · for the time being

Words with 时

时候shíhou · time时shí · o’clock小时xiǎoshí · hour时间shíjiān · time有时yǒushí · sometimes小时候xiǎoshíhou · in one’s childhood当时dāngshí · then平时píngshí · ordinarily同时tóngshí · at the same time按时ànshí · on time

More words: Time

号hào · number年nián · year上午shàngwǔ · morning (forenoon)时候shíhou · time平时píngshí · ordinarily世纪shìjì · century同时tóngshí · at the same time永远yǒngyuǎn · forever

FAQs

暂时 (zànshí) means “temporary” or “provisional”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it zànshí: zàn with a 4th 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, 暂时 is written 暫時. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zanshi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 暂时 from the suggestions. Typing zanshi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
暂时 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.