Chinese word

有意

Pronunciation

Pinyinyǒu yì

Meaning

  • adverbon purpose

Example

他有意迟到。tā yǒu yì chí dào

He was late on purpose.

Illustration for 有意 (on purpose)

More examples

他有意忽视我的建议。tā yǒu yì hū shì wǒ de jiàn yì

He deliberately ignored my suggestion.

Core concept

An action guided by a person's intention instead of left to chance.

Common phrases

  • 有意示好yǒu yì shì hǎo

    deliberately show goodwill

  • 有意忽视yǒu yì hū shì

    deliberately ignore

  • 有意引导yǒu yì yín dǎo

    deliberately guide

Similar words

故意gù yì: Does something intentionally to bring about a known result.
刻意kè yì: Makes a deliberate choice of action to reach a desired goal.
特意tè yì: Makes a special effort to do something for that specific purpose.

Definition in Chinese

表示故意、带着目的或意图去做某事的副词。biǎo shì gù yì dài zhe mù dì huò yì tú qù zuò mǒu shì de fù cí

Word origin

有 (yǒu, "have") + 意 (yì, "intention") forms the idea of having intention behind an action, yielding the adverbial sense of deliberate choice.

Usage tips

  • In Chinese, this adverb commonly stands before the verb phrase, while English often places a matching adverbial after the action; learning this order supports natural sentence building.

Opposites

Related words

  • 有意性yǒu yì xìngintentionalitynoun

Word lists with this word