Read Edit View history 先是 xiānshì at first Origin Definitions Defs Strokes Stroke Words Sentences Sents 先是 xiānshì at first adverb Used to describe a situation or action that happened first, often followed by words like 后来 hòulái or 然后 ránhòu in the next part of the sentence before this (literary) At an earlier time; previously. Often used at the beginning of a sentence when tracing back to past events. former Former; original; initial Show rare definitions Hide rare definitions Frequency Movie subtitles 2.59 per million appears in 1% of films Written text 16.4 per million Sources Frequency data SUBTLEX-CHBCC Corpus (BLCU)
先是 xiānshì at first adverb Used to describe a situation or action that happened first, often followed by words like 后来 hòulái or 然后 ránhòu in the next part of the sentence before this (literary) At an earlier time; previously. Often used at the beginning of a sentence when tracing back to past events. former Former; original; initial Show rare definitions Hide rare definitions Frequency Movie subtitles 2.59 per million appears in 1% of films Written text 16.4 per million Sources Frequency data SUBTLEX-CHBCC Corpus (BLCU)