本事

本事 běnshì

Ability (skill)

本事 in a sentence HSK 6 benshi

What 本事 means

  1. Ability (skill)

These meanings come from the same dictionary that powers the Chinese to Pinyin translator and the Chinese to English translator, so a whole sentence containing 本事 will read it the same way this page does.

Recognise a piece of 本事 but not the character it belongs to? Pick the parts in the component character finder and it will name the character for you — free for every character, with nothing to sign in to.

Character by character

本事 is written with 2 characters. Chinese words are usually easier to remember once you can see what each part contributes.

本
běn
This (mw for books - roots - original)
事
shì
Matter (thing - accident - trouble - responsibility - job)

How to write 本事

Stroke order is not decoration — it is what makes handwriting legible and what dictionary lookup by stroke count depends on.

Practise 本事 on printable 田字格 sheets, trace it in the writing practice tool, or watch any other character in the Stroke Order Animator.

本事 in a sentence

他这个人没什么架子,但很有本事。
Tā zhège rén méi shénme jiàzi, dàn hěn yǒu běnshi.
He puts on no airs at all, but he is very capable.
光会说不行,得拿出真本事来。
Guāng huì shuō bù xíng, děi náchū zhēn běnshi lái.
Talking alone is not enough; you have to show real ability.

Every sentence on this site that uses 本事 is collected on the 本事 sentence page. Want pinyin above a sentence of your own? Paste it into the Pinyin Annotator.

Questions about 本事

What does 本事 mean in English?

本事 is pronounced běnshì and means Ability (skill).

How do you pronounce 本事?

本事 is běnshì in pinyin — written benshi without tone marks. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice.

What are the characters in 本事?

本事 is written with 2 characters: 本 (běn) This (mw for books - roots - original), 事 (shì) Matter (thing - accident - trouble - responsibility - job). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.

Is 本事 an HSK word?

Yes — 本事 is on the official HSK 6 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 6 page.

Studied around the same time

Keep going

Translate a whole sentence containing 本事 with the Chinese to Pinyin translator, study it alongside the rest of HSK 6, drill it with HSK flashcards, or save it above and review it on your review deck.

Browse the dictionary

Every word on this site links to its entry — tap any word in a graded reader, a translation result or an HSK list to land on a page like this one.

Dictionary index