些
usually seen in: some; a few; a little; (following an adjective) slightly ...er (一些); slight; minor; small (些微); a few; a little; a bit (些许); a few (days, years etc) ago (前些)
Closest English meanings
some·few·a little·such
The Calligrapher — Wáng Ānshí 王安石
Song statesman and reformer famed for his vigorous running script.
Song calligrapher (), master of running script — known for 《楞严经旨要》. Song dynasty
Cultural Story
些 is a late, colloquial character, no 說文 entry, built from 此, this, with a small-mark suffix, the spoken way to say a bit of this. It rose with the vernacular novels, the 西遊記 and 紅樓夢, where dialogue needed a light word for some. The character is the small quantity made casual, the handful you do not bother to count.
Common words & phrases
- 一些 some · a few
- 些许 a little · a bit
- 那些 those
- 这些 these
- 好些 quite a few · a good many
Read the story behind the character
一些 is the filler of every sentence, 一些 water, 一些 time. 些许 is the poetic a little; 那些 and 这些 point, those people, these things. 好些 is the quite a few you admit to. The character is pure quantity-light, the word for an amount too small to weigh. You use it constantly to soften a noun, the spoken shrug that says an unspecified bit of this.
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