TongTong
Sign in

私交 (sī jiāo) — personal friendship; private ties

Definition

私交 refers to personal, private ties between individuals, separate from their official or professional relationship (公务, 工作关系). The example sentence deliberately contrasts 私交 with 公事 to mark this boundary.

noun
personal friendshipprivate ties

Examples

  • ，私交。
    Zài zhè ge gōng sī, zuì hǎo bú yào bǎ gōng shì hé sī jiāo hùn zài yì qǐ.
    In this company, it's best not to mix business and personal friendship.
  • ，私交。
    Tā men suī rán gōng zuò shàng yǒu máo dùn, dàn sī jiāo yì zhí hěn hǎo.
    Although they have conflicts at work, their personal friendship has always been good.
  • ，私交。
    Wǒ gēn tā zhǐ shì tóng shì, méi yǒu sī jiāo guān xì.
    He and I are just colleagues; we don't have a personal friendship.

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.

私sīprivate
交jiāofriendship

私 means private and 交 means friendship; together they refer to personal friendship.

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
禾禾hé
Sound part声符shēngfú
厶
厶sī私sī
Same sound today

私 combines 禾 and 厶; 厶 originally represented the word, and 禾 was added later.

Open 私 →

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

交 originally drew a human with crossed legs. In the modern shape, the upper part resembles a standing person.

Open 交 →
Appears in
Friends & Social

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