信 (xìn) · letter, to believe, to trust

Measure Word

一封信 fēng

Meanings

1 letter
2 to believe
3 to trust

Characters

信

xìn

letter; trust; believe

Contains 亻 (person) + 言 (speech) - a person's word is trustworthy.

Examples

HSK 1

我信你说的话。

Wǒ xìn nǐ shuō de huà.

I believe what you said.

HSK 3

我收到了一封信。

Wǒ shōudào le yì fēng xìn.

I received a letter.

HSK 3

你相信他吗？

Nǐ xiāngxìn tā ma?

Do you believe him?

Tips

usage

信 as a noun means 'letter'. As a verb, it means 'to believe/trust'. 相信 is the full verb form.

Components

radical

亻 rén

person (radical form)

Left person radical - side-form of 人, indexing radical for 信. Two strokes depicting a standing figure. Marks 信 as a person-action character. Same person-radical family as 你, 他, 们, 件, 住 - chars where the action or state belongs to a human.

semantic

言 yán

speech; word

Right 言 - speech radical with mouth at the bottom and tongue/sound waves above. The compound is a perfect ideograph: a person standing by their words is trustworthy. From 'a person whose word is good' came every modern sense - trust, belief, a letter (a written word), a signal (a transmitted word). Pure semantic compound, no phonetic role.