虛詞 Function Words
Common particles, with examples from the Analects
虛詞 do grammatical work — marking possession, mood, aspect, and relation — rather than naming things. The traditional split from 實詞 (content words) is not a sharp one: 之 can be a demonstrative, 其 a pronoun. The difficulty is not that they are missing from dictionaries but that a single character does several jobs, and only its position relative to the surrounding words tells you which.
Choose a character for its senses, every occurrence in the book, and how much of it reaches English. Hover or tap any Chinese for a gloss.
3774 occurrences across these 21 words, each read in its own passage.
之 The most common word in the book, with three function-word jobs: standing for "him/her/it" after a verb, linking two words the way modern 的 does (the X of Y), and turning a small sentence into a phrase you can talk about. (A handful of times it is a real verb, "to go" — the fourth sense counted below.) 613× · 4 senses 也 The one thing 也 never means here is "also" — that is its modern job. In the Analects it is a spoken full stop that says "this is so", or a pause after naming the thing about to be discussed. 532× · 3 senses 者 Turns a description into the person or thing described: 知者 is "the one who knows", the way English "-er" turns "run" into "runner". Its other job is holding a word up for definition: X者，Y也 — "an X: that is a Y." 219× · 2 senses · coming soon 乎 A busy little word. At the end of a sentence it asks (like modern 嗎) or exclaims (like 啊); in the middle of one it stands in for 於 — "in", "at", "than". 158× · 4 senses · coming soon 而 The word that joins actions: "but," "yet," "and," "and then." Modern speech mostly dropped it, but it survives in written compounds like 而且 and 然而. Which meaning it carries depends on whether the two actions pull against each other or together. 343× · 4 senses · coming soon 矣 The ancestor of modern 了: something has happened, or a new situation has arrived. Its opposite number is 也, which marks what simply IS rather than what has BECOME. 181× · 1 sense · coming soon 焉 One syllable that packs in "in it," "to him," "there" — 於 (in/at/to) and 之 (it/him) fused together, at the end of the clause. A separate use, standing before the verb, means "how" or "where" in rhetorical questions. 88× · 3 senses · coming soon 其 Mostly "his," "her," "its," "their" — where modern Chinese says 他的. A second, smaller job: softening a sentence to "perhaps," "probably," "surely," a little the way 吧 softens one today. 270× · 4 senses · coming soon 以 The verb "to use," worn down into a connecting word: "with," "using," "by," "in order to." Modern 用 and 以便 split its work between them. What is being used usually follows it — and sometimes jumps in front. 211× · 5 senses · coming soon 於 The all-purpose "at / in / to / from / than" — one word covering most of what English prepositions do between them. Modern Chinese splits its work among 在, 到, 從 and 比. 175× · 5 senses · coming soon 則 "Then," linking a condition to what follows from it — exactly the job modern 就 does. (Once in the book it is something else entirely: a verb, "to take as one's model," 唯堯則之.) 124× · 3 senses · coming soon 與 As yǔ: conjunction "and," preposition "with," or the verb "give." As yù: the verb "take part in" (吾不與祭). As yú (final particle): marks questions with softer tone than 乎, or expresses conjecture. 144× · 5 senses · coming soon 然 Means "so, thus, like this" or acts as an adverb-forming suffix (like English -ly). Also used as an affirmative response meaning "yes." 38× · 4 senses · coming soon 諸 Three jobs: "the various" (as in 諸侯, the various lords — still its modern meaning), and two contractions, where 諸 squeezes 之於 "it + to" or 之乎 "it + question mark" into one syllable, the way English squeezes "do not" into "don't." 43× · 4 senses · coming soon 哉 An exclamatory final particle expressing strong emotion - wonder, admiration, lament, or emphasis. Often follows 乎 or 矣 for intensification. 61× · 1 sense · coming soon 斯 A joining word, "then" — "you want ren, and THEN ren arrives" — and a pointing word, "this," like modern 這. The two shade into each other, and the book uses them in almost equal measure. 71× · 2 senses · coming soon 所 Turns a verb into "the thing that gets verbed": 所好 is "what is loved," not "the one who loves." It is the mirror of 者 — 愛者 the lover, 所愛 the loved. English "what" usually covers it. 50× · 2 senses · coming soon 是 The demonstrative "this". It is not yet the regular copula of later Chinese, and a modern reader will misparse it: where it looks like "is", it is the demonstrative subject of an equational sentence, and the copular work is done by 也. 60× · 3 senses · coming soon 夫 Three jobs: raising a topic at the start of a sentence, adding a sigh at its close, and pointing as a demonstrative — 夫人, "that man". All read fú, distinct from 夫 (fū) in 夫子, "the Master", which is an ordinary noun. 105× · 5 senses · coming soon 何 The interrogative — what, why, how. Its meaning is constant; the difficulty is the frames it appears in, since two of them wrap around their object. 118× · 2 senses · coming soon 為 Two words sharing one character. Read wéi it means to act as, to practise, to be; read wèi it means for the sake of. Tone decides which, and only context reveals the tone. 170× · 5 senses · coming soon