时 (shí) · time; hour; period

Meanings

1 time; hour; period
2 season; times
3 when; at the time of

Characters

时

shí

time; hour; period

Examples

HSK 1

现在是北京时间八时。

Xiànzài shì Běijīng shíjiān bā shí.

It is now 8 o'clock Beijing time.

HSK 2

小时候我很喜欢画画。

Xiǎoshíhou wǒ hěn xǐhuan huàhuà.

When I was little, I loved to draw.

HSK 4

有时我会一个人去散步。

Yǒushí wǒ huì yí gè rén qù sànbù.

Sometimes I go for walks alone.

Tips

usage

时 appears in many fundamental compounds: 时间 (time), 时候 (time/when), 小时 (hour), 有时 (sometimes), 同时 (at the same time), 及时 (timely).

grammar

As a suffix, 时 means 'when/at the time of': 吃饭时 (when eating), 上课时 (during class). More literary than ...的时候.

Components

radical

日 rì

sun; day

Left sun radical (Kangxi #72) - the indexing radical. Anchors the time-and-day semantics: 时 is hour, time, era, season - all measured by the sun's movement. The simplified 时 replaced traditional 時's complex 寺 phonetic with a simpler 寸 below the sun. Same radical groups 早 (early), 晚 (late), 明 (bright), 晴 (clear weather).

phonetic

寸 cùn

inch; small measure

Right phonetic residue 寸 (cùn) - provides a degraded sound link to shí through the simplification. Traditional 時 had 寺 (sì, temple) on the right as full phonetic; the simplified 时 trimmed 寺 to just its 寸 base, weakening the phonetic link but preserving the visual hint. 寸 standalone means 'inch' or a tiny measure.