既 (jì) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

既

jì[ji4]Tone 4

already

HSK 4

Guru Deep Dive

English · already

Cached lesson

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:9

Writing Balance Rule: The left component (艮) and right component (旡) must balance harmoniously side-by-side, keeping the vertical centerline respected without letting either side overpower the other.

1. Meaning

already

sinceboth... and...

Adverb / ConjunctionFormal / Literary#time#logic#conjunction

Sample Usage

既然你来了，就留下来吃饭吧。
jìrán nǐ lái le, jiù liú xià lái chī fàn ba.
Since you have come, stay for dinner.
既…又…
jì... yòu...
both... and...

2. Sound

/[t͡ɕi˥˩]/Tone: 51

既

jìji4

`(51)

=jì

Initial Consonant

Type: Unaspirated Alveolo-Palatal

Sounds like: sounds like the 'j' in 'jeep' produced without breath

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: No air puff. Lips spread wide like smiling.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Blade of the tongue touches the hard palate, flattening gently as the air releases with a friction-less blade-alveolar stop.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -i vowel group

Sounds like: rhymes with the 'ee' in 'see'

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ee'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T4 (51)

5 → 1 (51)

4th Tone (High-Falling)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 drops sharply from high to low, identical to an emphatic English 'No!' or 'Stop!'.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing it with Tone 1 (jī) or Tone 2 (jí); ensure the pitch starts high and drops decisively.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A sharp, forceful nod downwards, like chopping the air in half, matching the descending pitch from high 5 to low 1.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 9 strokes

4. Components

Radical 旡 · Scrape Radical (swallowing or choking backwards)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 旡 (indicates the original meaning of choking or a full stomach)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 艮 (original sound: gèn / jì)

The character combines '艮' (stiff/stopped) on the left with '旡' (a person turning their head away after swallowing/finishing) on the right, signifying that an action has reached its end point—'already'.

艮 stiff, firm, stopping point
旡 choking, finishing eating

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

9· Phonetic Root: 既 (jì)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally depicted a person eating their fill until they could swallow no more (旡), combined with a phonetic/semantic marker (艮) indicating cessation. Hence, it evolved to mean 'already completed' or 'since'.

Semantic Evolution: From the physical state of being full and unable to swallow more, the meaning generalized to 'already finished/done', and further grammaticalized into conjunctive structures like 'since' and 'both... and'.

In Classical Chinese, 既 frequently acts as a perfective aspect marker indicating that an event has already occurred before another begins.

6. Sinosphere

🇻🇳

Sino-Vietnamese

ký

The entering/falling pitch parallels falling tones in Vietnamese.

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: キ / Kun: すで.に

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

기

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

You are *already* (jì) so full after eating that your stomach is stiff (艮) and you turn your head away choking (旡).

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

即

jípromptly, immediatelyReplaces the right component with a food vessel symbol, shifting meaning to approaching food to eat right away.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

即(jí)

既 has 艮 on the left; 即 has a squatting person/vessel on the left.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

他[___]经完成作业了。

Clue: jì

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the left and right structural orientation with lookalike characters or misapplying it in 既…又… pairing by forgetting the matching 又 conjunction.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: What does 既 mean when you see it in 既然 (jìrán)?

Production: How do you write the character for 'already / since' (jì) with 9 strokes?

既jìalready

Speed:

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