ZHIZHI 知止 · LEARN CHINESE DAILY

question; topic

15 strokes · 是 (to be, sound shì→tí) + 页 (head/page) — what stands at the head · HSK 2

Where 题 comes from

页 is a kneeling figure with an oversized head — the radical of heads and pages. 题 originally meant the forehead, then the heading written at the top of a text, then the question posed under that heading. Topics are foreheads of essays.

题 in Chinese culture

做题 'doing problems' is the daily bread of Chinese schooling — entire bookstores sell nothing but 题库 question banks. 跑题 'running off the topic' is what teachers write in red when your essay's forehead and body don't match.

Example

问题 wèntí — question; problem

这个问题很难。
Zhège wèntí hěn nán.
This question is very hard.

How to remember it

What IS 是 written at the head 页 of the page — the QUESTION.

没问题 'no problem' is among the first phrases every visitor learns — and 题 hides inside it, a question already answered.

Same sound, different tones

1st tī
to kick
2nd tí
question
3rd tǐ
body
4th tì
to shave

Words unlocked by 题

问题 wèntí
question
没问题 méi wèntí
no problem
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