将信将疑

將信將疑
jiāngxìn-jiāngyí
idiom

Meanings

  1. 1 half-believing, half-doubting
  2. 2 to be skeptical but not entirely dismissive

Examples

HSK 4
Tīng wán tā de jiěshì, wǒ háishi jiāngxìn-jiāngyí.
After hearing his explanation, I was still half-convinced, half-doubtful.
HSK 4
Duìyú zhège xiāoxi, tā yìzhí jiāngxìn-jiāngyí.
He has been skeptical about this news all along.
HSK 5
Dàjiā jiāngxìn-jiāngyí de kàn zhe nàge mòshēngrén.
Everyone looked at the stranger with mixed belief and doubt.

Tips

history
From Li Hua's Tang-dynasty elegy 《吊古战场文》: 人或有言,将信将疑, mourners half-believe, half-doubt tales of the ancient battlefield. The … pattern means 'now... now...' (simultaneously both).
grammar
The … construction here is a classical parallelism equivalent to …, 'both believing and doubting.' This is not the modern meaning 'will / in the future.'

Stroke Order

jiāng
xìn