Chinese word

不时

Pronunciation

Pinyinbù shí

Meaning

  • adverbsometimes

Example

我不时想起他。wǒ bù shí xiáng qǐ tā

I sometimes think of him.

Illustration for 不时 (sometimes)

More examples

工作中不时出现新的问题。gōng zuò zhōng bù shí chū xiàn xīn de wèn tí

New problems occasionally appear at work.

Core concept

Something surfaces repeatedly but irregularly, rather than continuing steadily or appearing only once.

Common phrases

  • 不时出现bù shí chū xiàn

    appear occasionally

  • 不时想起bù shí xiáng qǐ

    occasionally remember

Similar words

有时yǒu shí: Occurs at some times but not at others.
偶尔óu ěr: Occurs infrequently and only on a few occasions.
常常cháng cháng: Occurs many times or on many occasions.

Definition in Chinese

表示偶尔、时不时地发生，既非长期持续也非极为罕见，用于描述动作或感受的零星出现。biǎo shì óu ěr shí bù shí dì fā shēng jì fēi cháng qī chí xù yě fēi jí wéi hǎn jiàn yòng yú miáo shù dòng zuò huò gǎn shòu de líng xīng chū xiàn

Word origin

不时 (bùshí, "not at a fixed time") joins 不 (bù, "not") with 时 (shí, "time"), framing an event as outside a regular time pattern.

Usage tips

  • English frequency words can leave it unclear whether an event happens once or keeps recurring, whereas this adverb normally signals repeated occurrences within a period.

Opposites

Word lists with this word