根本

根本 gēnběn

Root (fundamental - at all)

根本 in a sentence HSK 5 genben

What 根本 means

  1. Root (fundamental - at all)

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 根本 will read it the same way this page does.

Recognise a piece of 根本 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

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

根
gēn
Root (basis)
本
běn
This (mw for books - roots - original)

How to write 根本

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

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

根本 in a sentence

我根本不知道这件事。
Wǒ gēnběn bù zhīdào zhè jiàn shì.
I knew nothing at all about this.
这是问题的根本原因。
Zhè shì wèntí de gēnběn yuányīn.
This is the fundamental cause of the problem.

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

Questions about 根本

What does 根本 mean in English?

根本 is pronounced gēnběn and means Root (fundamental - at all).

How do you pronounce 根本?

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

What are the characters in 根本?

根本 is written with 2 characters: 根 (gēn) Root (basis), 本 (běn) This (mw for books - roots - original). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.

Is 根本 an HSK word?

Yes — 根本 is on the official HSK 5 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 5 page.

Studied around the same time

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