Chinese word dictionary

本来

běnlái · original; originally; at first; it goes without saying; of course

Practice word

Word information

Simplified本来

Traditional本來

Pinyinběnlái

Part of speech形、副

HSK 3.04

HSK 2.04

Character breakdown

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

本běn

root, origin, source; basis

来lái

to arrive, to come, to return; in the future, later on

How to learn 本来

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.

本běn

(bound form) root; stem; (bound form) origin; source; (bound form) one's own; this; (bound form) this; the current (year etc); (bound form) original; (bound form) inherent; originally; initially; capital; principal; classifier for books, periodicals, files etc

来lái

to come; (used as a substitute for a more specific verb); hither (directional complement for motion toward the speaker, as in 回來|回来[hui2 lai5]); ever since (as in 自古以來|自古以来[zi4 gu3 yi3 lai2]); for the past (amount of time); (prefix) the coming ...; the next ... (as in 來世|来世[lai2 shi4]); (between two verbs) in order to; (after a round number) approximately; (used after 得[de2] to indicate possibility, as in 談得來|谈得来[tan2 de5 lai2], or after 不[bu4] to indicate impossibility, as in 吃不來|吃不来[chi1 bu5 lai2])

本běn

root; stem; origin; source; this

本子běnzi

book; notebook; Japanese-style self-published comic (esp. an erotic one), aka "dōjinshi"; CL:本[ben3]; edition

出来chūlái

to come out; to appear; to arise

过来guòlái

to come over; to manage; to handle; to be able to take care of