Chinese word dictionary

斗筲之材

dǒu shāo zhī cái · person of limited capacity

Practice word

Word information

Simplified斗筲之材

Traditional斗筲之材

Pinyindǒu shāo zhī cái

Part of speechDictionary

HSK 3.0Not listed

HSK 2.0Not listed

Character breakdown

Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.

斗dòu

to struggle, to fight, to contend; measuring cup

筲shāo

basket, bucket

之zhī

marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; to go to

材cái

timber; material, stuff; talent

How to learn 斗筲之材

Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.

When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.

Related vocabulary

Words with the same characters

Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.

之zhī

(possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的); him; her; it

材料cáiliào

(raw) material; data; (fig.) person who has the potential to do the job

之zhī

(possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的[de5]); him; her; it

之后zhīhòu

after; behind; (at the beginning of a sentence) afterwards; since then

之间zhījiān

(after a noun) between; among; amid; (used after certain bisyllabic words to form expressions indicating a short period of time, e.g. 彈指之間|弹指之间[tan2 zhi3 zhi1 jian1])

之前zhīqián

before; prior to; ago; previously; beforehand