conjunction HSK 4 #2,523

Meanings

  1. 1 already
  2. 2 since
  3. 3 both...and...

Examples

Tā jì cōngming yòu piàoliang.
She is both smart and beautiful.
Zhè dào cài jì hǎochī yòu piányi.
This dish is both delicious and cheap.
Jìláizhī, zé ān zhī.
Since you're here, make the best of it.

Tips

grammar
/… means both…and… It connects two qualities: 简单实用 (both simple and practical).
culture
既来之,则安之 is a famous proverb meaning 'since you've come, settle in' — make peace with your situation.

Components

radical
person turning away with a full stomach
Right side is , picturing a kneeling person twisting their head back from the food-bowl — they are done eating. This is the indexing radical, and gives its core image: 'the meal is finished'. From that grew the abstract senses 'already', 'since (something is now done)', and the conjunction … 'both…and…' — facts already in place.
semantic
food vessel; aroma of grain
Left side is a contracted 5-stroke form of , the food-vessel graph (a bowl of cooked grain emitting fragrance) — standalone has 7 strokes, so this is a fused contraction. It depicts the meal that has been served. The same vessel sits in the cousin character 'about to (eat)', the mirror image where the diner approaches rather than turns away.

Stroke Order