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不慎 (bù shèn) — careless; incautious (formal, often used adverbially before verbs)

Definition

不慎 is a formal word meaning 'careless, inadvertent', almost always used before verbs to describe an accident (e.g. 不慎摔倒). Unlike 粗心 (a character trait) or 草率 (rash actions), it frames a single careless moment.

adjective
carelessincautious (formal, often used adverbially before verbs)

Examples

  • ，。
    Tā bú shèn shuāi dǎo, bǎ tuǐ shuāi shāng le.
    He fell carelessly and hurt his leg.
  • 。
    Tā dǎ zì shí bú shèn dǎ cuò le zì.
    She accidentally typed the wrong character while typing.
  • 。
    Tā bān dōng xi shí bú shèn niǔ dào le yāo.
    He strained his back carelessly while moving things.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

不bùnot
慎shèncareful

不 ('not') with 慎 ('careful') means 'not careful', hence careless.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The picture in 不 originally showed a flower’s calyx; the “no” sense came later from a related character, not from this picture.

Open 不 →

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
心心xīn
Sound part声符shēngfú
真
真zhēn慎shèn
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

In 慎, the left part 心 points to the mind or feeling, while the right part 真 supplies the sound.

Open 慎 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Personality & Traits

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.