食物 shíwù food
How to remember 食物: 食 food + 物 thing = food.
Characters
How it is used
- The general, neutral word for food - anything edible.
- 健康食物 (healthy food), 储存食物 (store food) - broad and unmarked, unlike 食品 (commercial/processed) or 菜 (dishes).
- Common in everyday speech and writing whenever 'food' in the plain English sense is meant.
- Good default translation for 'food' when no narrower nuance (product, dish, snack) is intended.
Example sentences
- 它是食物。 Tā shì shíwù.It's food.
- 请自带食物。 Qǐng zìdài shíwù.Please bring your own food.
- 不能浪费食物。 Bù néng làngfèi shíwù.Don't waste your food.