之
zhī HSK4

[attributive particle]

之 zhī
[possessive] particle
Connects a describing word or phrase to the noun it describes, similar to 的 de but used in formal or literary writing.

你知道失去所爱之人的感受。

nǐ zhī​dao shī​qù suǒ ài zhī rén de gǎn​shòu.

You know how it feels to lose someone you love.

生命之树代表什么？

shēng​mìng zhī shù dài​biǎo shén​me?

What does the Tree of Life represent?

it pronoun
Used only in the object position to refer to a person or thing already mentioned, meaning "him", "her", "it", or "them".

找到值得为之活下去的东西。

zhǎo dào zhí​de wèi zhī huó xià​qu de dōng​xi.

Find something worth living for.

and the like nounadjective
Used after a name or noun to refer to others of that kind or category
[nominalizer] particle
Used between a subject and a verb to turn the phrase into a noun-like unit.
[intensifier] particle
Used between a subject and a following adjective to emphasize the degree or extent of a quality.

市场如此之大，谁都有机会。

shì​chǎng rú​cǐ zhī dà, shéi dōu yǒu jī​huì.

The market is so big that there’s opportunity for everyone.

to go
(literary) To travel to a place; to head toward.
this
(bound form) This; referring to a person or thing nearby.
surname
A Chinese surname
[object marker]
(literary) Used to indicate the preposing of an object for emphasis

Cross-References

Synonym

Referenced by

Same as

Frequency
Character
Written text
44th most common 3147.2 per million
Movie subtitles
130th most common 1382.4 per million appears in 99% of films
Word
Movie subtitles
471.1 per million appears in 76% of films
Written text
1099.5 per million

Details
HSK 2.0
Level 4
HSK 3.0
Level 4
Strokes
3
Unicode
U+4E4B

Sources
Frequency data
MTSU Chinese text computingSUBTLEX-CHBCC Corpus (BLCU)