资料 zīliào material
material; resources; data; information; profile (Internet)
How to remember 资料: 资 wealth + 料 ingredients = material.
Characters
How it is used
- Reference material, files, or data - not money, not news.
- 收集资料 (gather materials/data, e.g. for research), 个人资料 (personal profile/info, e.g. on an app or form).
- Different from 消息 (a piece of news) and 信息 (information in the abstract) - 资料 usually means tangible documents or collected data.
- Very common in academic, office, and internet-profile contexts.
Example sentences
- 我上网找资料。 Wǒ shàngwǎng zhǎo zīliào.I go online to search for information.
- 我去图书馆找资料。 Wǒ qù túshūguǎn zhǎo zīliào.I'm going to the library to try to find some information/materials.