Chinese word

亲身

Pronunciation

Pinyinqīn shēn

Meaning

  • adverbpersonally

Example

亲身经历过这件事的人更能理解你。qīn shēn jīng lì guò zhè jiàn shì de rén gèng néng lí jiě nǐ

People who have experienced this personally can understand you better.

Illustration for 亲身 (personally)

More examples

我亲身去看过那场演出，效果比报道说的更震撼。wǒ qīn shēn qù kàn guò nà chǎng yǎn chū xiào guǒ bǐ bào dào shuō de gèng zhèn hàn

I went to see that performance myself, and its effect was more powerful than the report said.

Core concept

Knowledge comes from standing inside an event through one's own body, not from reports about it.

Common phrases

  • 亲身体验qīn shēn tǐ yàn

    experience firsthand

  • 亲身经历qīn shēn jīng lì

    go through firsthand

  • 亲身参与qīn shēn cān yù

    participate in personally

Similar words

亲自qīn zì: Doing an action oneself, with personal involvement in carrying it out.
亲眼qīn yǎn: Seeing something directly for oneself.
亲耳qīn ěr: Hearing something directly for oneself.
亲手qīn shǒu: Doing something oneself by using one's own hands.

Definition in Chinese

以本人或用自己的身体直接经历、感受或参与某事，强调亲自体验或亲自感受的直接性。yǐ běn rén huò yòng zì jǐ de shēn tǐ zhí jiē jīng lì gǎn shòu huò cān yù mǒu shì qiáng diào qīn zì tǐ yàn huò qīn zì gǎn shòu de zhí jiē xìng

Word origin

The compound 亲身 (qīnshēn, "personally") joins 亲 (qīn, "one's own") and 身 (shēn, "body or self"), putting the person and their embodied experience at the center.

Usage tips

  • For English speakers, personally often introduces a private opinion, but this word points to evidence from direct experience, as in an account of something actually lived through.

Other meanings

  • in personadverb
  • firsthandadverb

Opposites

Related words

  • 亲身体验qīn shēn tǐ yànexperience firsthandverb
  • 亲身经历qīn shēn jīng lìgo through firsthandverb

Word lists with this word