variant of 是[shi4] / (used in given names)
to be (followed by substantives only) / correct; right; true / (respectful acknowledgement of a command) very well / (adverb for emphatic assertion)

= + : Mnemonic symbol: a skull, from "to be or not to be".

Sherlock Holmes (sh) starts his day in the space station's bathroom (Ø4) with a mug of coffee (旦). Holding a skull (mnemonic symbol for 是) in his hands, he asks himself "to be, or not to be" (是). He wonders if he can make the skull come back to life using lots of coffee, and injects coffee from his mug into the skull using a syringe (龰).

= + + : Mnemonic symbol: a skull, from "to be or not to be".

Sherlock Holmes (sh) watches the Neanderthal Man (人) trying to climb to the sun (日) on a ladder (下) in the space station's bathroom (Ø4). Sherlock is afraid that he'll open the window, so he puts on a big skull (是) and scares him off.

是 character breakdown

down / downwards / below / lower / later / next (week etc) / second (of two parts) / to decline / to go down / to arrive at (a decision, conclusion etc) / measure word to show the frequency of an action

= + : Mnemonic symbol: from the up/down logic, and a little bit the shape of the character, a ladder.

Xi Shi (xi) is on a retreat in the ashram. Using a voodoo staff (卜), she divined that next (下) week she'll have to play the flute (一) sixteen hours per day. Because she hates playing the flute, she climbs over the ashram's bathroom (a4) wall using a ladder (下) to escape.
abbr. for 日本[Ri4 ben3], Japan
sun / day / date, day of the month

= + : Robinson Crusoe (r) is hiding from the sun (日) in an enclosure (囗) full of flutes (一) in the space station's bathroom (Ø4).
dawn / morning / daybreak / day / dan, female roles in Chinese opera (traditionally played by specialized male actors)

= + : Mnemonic symbol: A big mug, since many people start the day with a mug of coffee.

Don Quixote (d) meets the sun (日) early in the morning (旦) in the anthill's bathroom (an4). Don Quixote is full of energy and can't wait to start into a new adventure, but since the sun is a morning grouch who only just started drinking her mug of coffee (mnemonic symbol for 旦) she cannot stand it and beats him over the head with a flute (一) to calm him a bit down.
Character component without intrinsic meaning

= + : Neanderthal man (人) accidentally pierced his foot with a pennant (⺊). Now he'll have to get an injection against tetanus. This character will thus be represented by a syringe.
person; people / CL:個|个[ge4],位[wei4]

= 丿 + : Mnemonic symbol: Neanderthal Man (人). Robinson Crusoe (r-) is looking for snacks in the encampment's kitchen (-en2) when he suddenly spots Neanderthal Man (人). Neanderthal Man offers him a banana (丿), but Robinson Crusoe doesn't trust the present and pokes it with a finger (㇏).

Characters with 是 as component

variant of 堤[di1]

= + : Dorothy Gale (di) is using the skulls (是) of her former enemies to build a dike (堤) around the space station (Ø1). To make the dike less daunting she adds a final layer of ordinary dirt (土).
variant of 鮮|鲜[xian3]
orange-red silk / orange-red colored
anchovy
surname Di
leather shoes
really / solid
well-being
clear water / pure
used as phonetic / female name
to examine / to judge
correct / right
to kick / to tread on

Words with 是

not one good point / everything about it is wrong
devoid of fear (idiom) / intrepid
lit. to keep ding (the fourth heavenly stem) distinct from mao (the fourth earthly branch) (idiom) / fig. meticulous / conscientious / unambiguous
people who don't belong together, don't get to live together (idiom) / marriages are predestined / people marry because they share common traits
destiny will make enemies meet (idiom) / (often said about lovers who have a disagreement)
not to be trifled with / to be reckoned with
not the right flavor / not quite right / a bit off / fishy / queer / amiss / feel bad / be upset
(derog.) to be a good-for-nothing / worthless nobody / no-good
lit. one is one, two is two (idiom) / fig. things are (or ought to be) perfectly clear-cut / unequivocal

Sentences with 是

zhe̅n
shì
sǎo
xìng
de
hěn
na
Comments

Mad props to liakad for uploading the green skull to https://openclipart.org/detail/4660/greenskull

Matthias, over 1 year ago