一 yī
- Strokes
- 1
- Radical
- 一 — one
- How it's built
- Ideograph — the meaning is built from its parts
一声不吭
yìshēngbùkēng
to say nothing; without a word
Characters in this word
声 shēng
- Strokes
- 7
- Radical
- 士 — scholar, gentleman
- How it's built
- Ideograph — the meaning is built from its parts
不 bù
- Strokes
- 4
- Radical
- 一 — one
- How it's built
- Ideograph — the meaning is built from its parts
吭 kēng
- Strokes
- 7
- Radical
- 口 — mouth
- Made of
- 口 mouth 亢 high, proud
- How it's built
- Phono-semantic — one part hints at the meaning, another at the sound
Example phrases
- 被老师批评后，他低着头一声不吭。 Bèi lǎoshī pīpíng hòu, tā dīzhe tóu yìshēngbùkēng. After being criticized by the teacher, he kept his head down and said nothing.
- 他生气的时候总是一声不吭地走开。 Tā shēngqì de shíhou zǒngshì yìshēngbùkēng de zǒukāi. When he is angry, he always walks away without a word.
- 你问我半天了，怎么一声不吭呀？ Nǐ wèn wǒ bàn tiān le, zěnme yìshēngbùkēng ya? I've been asking you for ages — why aren't you saying anything?
Related words
- 一 yī one
- 一半 yíbàn half
- 一会儿 yíhuìr a moment, a little while
- 一块儿 yíkuàir together
- 一下儿 yíxiàr a bit, briefly (after a verb)
- 一样 yíyàng the same, alike
- 一边 yìbiān one side; while (doing two things at once)
- 一点儿 yìdiǎnr a little, a bit
- 一起 yìqǐ together
- 一些 yìxiē some, a few
- 不一定 bùyídìng not necessarily
- 不一会儿 bùyíhuìr in a short while