所 (suǒ): place; location

Meanings

1 place; location
2 measure word for buildings/institutions
3 (literary particle used before verbs)

Characters

所

suǒ

place; that which

Examples

这是一所很好的学校。

Zhè shì yī suǒ hěn hǎo de xuéxiào.

This is a very good school.

那所医院在哪里？

Nà suǒ yīyuàn zài nǎlǐ?

Where is that hospital?

他所说的话是对的。

Tā suǒ shuō de huà shì duì de.

What he said was correct.

Tips

grammar

As a measure word, 所 is used for schools, hospitals, and houses: 一所学校, 一所医院, 一所房子.

grammar

所 + verb creates a noun phrase meaning 'that which is [verb]ed': 所有 (all that is possessed → all), 所以 (that by which → therefore), 所说的 (that which was said).

Components

radical

户 hù

household; door

Left indexing radical 户 — a single-leaf door, the entry to a household. In 所 it grounds the locational sense: a 'place' is fundamentally a doorway, a definite spot that one enters and leaves. Same door-anchored family in 房 (room), 扁 (flat over door), 扇 (fan/leaf-of-door).

phonetic

斤 jīn

axe; catty (weight)

Right side 斤, a pictograph of an adze or hand-axe. Primarily phonetic here (Old Chinese rime kinship with suǒ, opaque in Mandarin). A common folk reading also reads 户 + 斤 as 'the spot where the axe is kept', the workbench corner — a vivid mnemonic for the 'place' meaning.