事假 (shì jià) — personal leave, leave for personal reasons (not medical or bereavement)

Definition

Leave taken for personal errands or appointments (not illness, not family bereavement). Contrast with 病假 (sick leave) and 丧假 (bereavement leave).

noun
personal leaveleave for personal reasons (not medical or bereavement)
Measure word · 个
Easily confused

Examples

  • 事假。
    Tā qǐng le sān tiān shì jià qù bàn shǒu xù.
    He took three days of personal leave to handle procedures.
  • 事假。
    Gōng sī guī dìng qǐng shì jià yào tí qián yì tiān shēn qǐng.
    The company requires personal leave requests to be submitted one day in advance.
  • 事假，。
    Wǒ de shì jià bèi pī zhǔn le, kě yǐ qù kàn fáng.
    My personal leave was approved, so I can go look at apartments.

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.

事shìaffair
假jiǎleave

事 refers to personal affairs and 假 to leave, so together they denote time off for private matters.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

In 事, 又 is a hand and 中 is a flagpole with a drum; holding a flag in hand depicts performing a job.

Open 事 →

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
亻Written in full as人rénperson
Sound part声符shēngfú
叚
叚jiǎ假jiǎ
Same sound today

假 pairs 亻 (person) with 叚, which gives the sound jiǎ.

Open 假 →

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