说 (shuì): to persuade

Meanings

1 to persuade

Characters

说

shuì

to persuade

Examples

他到处游说，争取大家的支持。

Tā dàochù yóushuì, zhēngqǔ dàjiā de zhīchí.

He lobbied everywhere, seeking everyone's support.

战国时期的说客靠口才改变国家命运。

Zhànguó shíqī de shuìkè kào kǒucái gǎibiàn guójiā mìngyùn.

Warring-States persuaders changed the fate of states with their rhetoric.

Tips

mistakes

Read shuì (4th tone), not shuō, only in the fixed political-persuasion compounds 游说 (to lobby) and 说客 (lobbyist; itinerant adviser). For ordinary “to persuade” use shuō in 说服 or the standalone verb 劝. Mispronouncing 游说 as yóushuō is one of the most-corrected mistakes in Chinese news broadcasts.

history

The shuì reading is the signature of the 纵横家 — the “strategists” of the Warring States period who travelled between rival courts persuading rulers into alliances. Figures like Su Qin and Zhang Yi made 游说 a state-craft profession; the word still carries that diplomatic-rhetoric weight, distinct from everyday talking-someone-into-something.

Components

radical

讠 yán

speech; word

Left 讠 is the speech radical, simplified side-form of 言. Marks 说 as a speech-act verb. Anchors a vast family of speaking and communication chars — 话 talk, 请 request, 让 yield, 谁 who, 谢 thank, 课 lesson. Always the first hint a reader gets that the verb involves talking.

phonetic

兑 duì

exchange; cash in

Right 兑 supplies the sound — duì drifting to shuō with significant Old Chinese consonant shift. The same phonetic family shows wide drift: 锐 sharp, 脱 remove, 阅 read, 悦 delighted. 兑 itself depicts a person opening their mouth — a faint speech-association that loosely supports the meaning.