借 jiè — to borrow; to lend; to make use of, to take (an opportunity)

Pinyin

• jiè (fourth tone, falling)

to borrow; to lend; to make use of, to take (an opportunity)

Character breakdown

• 亻meaning partno entry yetThe person radical: borrowing happens between people.
• 昔sound partno entry yet昔 xī for the sound; on its own it means "former times, the past".

Mnemonic

A person 亻 with 昔 for the sound. The character covers both ends of the transaction — Chinese does not have separate words for borrowing and lending — and the direction is shown by the rest of the sentence: 我借他一本书 depends on context, while 我向他借书 is unambiguously borrowing and 我借给他一本书 is unambiguously lending. Give it back with 还.

A memory aid written by HSK Guide editors. It is not an etymology and does not describe the historical origin of the character.

Words containing 借

• 借jiè (fourth tone, falling)to borrow (from someone)

Radical 人 — other characters

• 人rén (second tone, rising)person, human being; people
• 他tā (first tone, high and level)he, him; his; (in the plural 他们) they, including groups of mixed or unstated gender
• 们/們men (neutral tone)the plural suffix for pronouns and for nouns denoting people: 我们, 你们, 他们, 朋友们
• 你nǐ (third tone, dipping)you (one person)
• 会/會huì (fourth tone, falling) kuài (fourth tone, falling)to know how to, to be able to (through learning); to be likely to, will; a meeting, a gathering, an association; (kuài) only in 会计, accounting
• 住zhù (fourth tone, falling)to live, to dwell, to stay; to stop, to halt; (as a verb complement) firmly, fast