政事 (zhèng shì) — government affairs, political matters

Definition

noun
government affairspolitical matters
Easily confused

Examples

  • 政事。
    Tā měi tiān máng yú chǔ lǐ zhèng shì.
    He is busy handling government affairs every day.
  • 政事。
    Zhè wèi guān yuán duì zhèng shì fēi cháng shú xi.
    This official is very familiar with government affairs.
  • 政事，。
    Tǎo lùn zhèng shì shí, dà jiā dōu hěn rèn zhēn.
    When discussing government affairs, everyone was very serious.

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.

政zhèngpolitical
事shìaffairs

政 (political) and 事 (affairs) combine: the word means political or government affairs.

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
攴攴pūaction
Sound part声符shēngfú
正
正zhèng政zhèng
Same sound today

政 combines 正, which gives the sound, with 攴, an action-related part.

Open 政 →

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 →

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