shú xī
to be familiar with
Practice writing with stroke order guidance, audio pronunciation, and interactive exercises in our mobile app.
Step-by-step stroke order animations
Native speaker audio pronunciation
Interactive writing recognition
我很熟悉这个城市。
wǒ hěn shúxī zhège chéngshì.
I am very familiar with this city.
我对这个话题很熟悉。
wǒ duì zhège huàtí hěn shúxī.
I am very familiar with this topic.
我对他很熟悉。
wǒ duì tā hěn shúxī.
I am very familiar with him.
陌生 (mò shēng)
unfamiliar
生疏 (shēng shū)
unfamiliar
The Chinese word 熟悉 (shúxī) means "familiar" or "well-acquainted with". It is composed of two characters: 熟 (shú), which means "cooked" or "ripe", and 悉 (xī), which means "all" or "thoroughly". The original meaning of 熟悉 was "to cook something thoroughly", but over time it came to be used more figuratively to mean "to be familiar with something".The character 熟 (shú) is composed of two parts: 火 (huǒ), which means "fire", and 肉 (ròu), which means "meat". This suggests that the original meaning of 熟 was "to cook meat over a fire". The character 悉 (xī) is composed of two parts: 心 (xīn), which means "heart", and 疋 (pǐ), which is a unit of measurement for cloth. This suggests that the original meaning of 悉 was "to know something by heart".When the two characters 熟 and 悉 are combined, they create the word 熟悉 (shúxī), which means "familiar" or "well-acquainted with". This is because when you are familiar with something, you know it thoroughly, just as you would know something that you have cooked thoroughly or that you know by heart.
