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有意 (yǒu yì) — (verb) to intend, to mean to; (adverb) intentionally, deliberately

Definition

有意 is a verb meaning 'to intend' (more formal than 打算) and an adverb meaning 'intentionally' (softer and more neutral than 故意, which implies wrongdoing).

verb
to intendto mean to
adverb
intentionallydeliberately
Easily confused

Examples

  • 有意，。
    Tā yǒu yì shāng hài nǐ de gǎn qíng, bié lǐ tā.
    He deliberately hurt your feelings; ignore him.
  • 有意。
    Wǒ yǒu yì xià ge yuè qù zhōng guó lǚ xíng.
    I intend to travel to China next month.
  • 有意，。
    Tā duì nà ge zhí wèi hěn yǒu yì, yǐ jīng tóu le jiǎn lì.
    She is very interested in that position and has already submitted her resume.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

有yǒuhave
意yìintention

有 means to have and 意 is intention or interest, so someone is intentional or interested.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
肉肉ròumeat
Sound part声符shēngfú
又
又yòu有yǒu
Same sound today

The form 有 combines 又, used for its sound, with a shape from 肉, 'meat'; the hand-holding-meat story is a folk explanation, not shown in the oldest shape.

Open 有 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 意 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Will & Intention5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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