似 shì resembling
resembling; similar to; as if; to seem
How to remember 似: 亻 person + 以 to use = resembling. The person in the costume shop likes to use a grey wig and glasses, and the mirror shows a face resembling his grandfather's.
Component breakdown
似 = 亻 person + 以 to use
- 亻 person
- 以 to use
- 人 person
- 𠄌 rising hook
- 丶 a drop
The person in the costume shop likes to use a grey wig and glasses, and the mirror shows a face resembling his grandfather's.
How it is used
- Polyphone. Read sì, it's the bound reading in comparison words: 相似 (xiāngsì, similar), 类似 (lèisì, analogous), and the literary sentence adverb 似乎 (sìhū, "it seems" - more formal than 好像 hǎoxiàng).
- Read shì, it appears only in the fixed pattern 似的 (shìde), placed at the end of a clause to mean "as if, like": 他好像哭了似的 (tā hǎoxiàng kū le shìde) - it's as if he'd been crying.