是

Glyph origin
Originally a, but the original meaning is unclear. It has been suggested that looks like a spoon, so  may have been the original character for. As early as in late bronze inscriptions, the lower part of split off and combined with  to give, which carried over to the small seal script, and  considers this a compound of  (i.e. as the upright sun).

Etymology
“This [an independent pronoun] > this, it [object recapitulation], be right, correct, so > to be, indeed”. The modern copulative sense only emerged by the Eastern Han dynasty, and gradually replaced the archaic and the classical copulative construction with.

This was due to the lack of a left-branching copula as archaic 唯 shifted into a contrasting and restricting particle, as well as its frequent use in presentational copulative constructions, often in the form of "A, 是 B 也" ("A, this is B"), which led to it being gradually reinterpreted as the copula instead of 也. Also note the semantic opposition with literary negative copula as in "right" and "wrong", which emerged by the Warring States period from the frequent collocation of the expression "是 X 也, 非 Y 也" (This is X, not Y).

To understand this development, compare,. Compare French which in colloquial speech often replaces copula, as well as , the topic particle like Old Chinese ,  and left-branching , but frequently misinterpreted as the copula by learners.

From. In Chinese, cognate with, , ,. In Tibeto-Burman, cognate with 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬,, and 🇨🇬.

Definitions

 * 1)  this; this thing
 * 2)  to be
 * 3)  truly; indeed.
 * 4)  yes; right
 * 5) true; correct
 * (This is a fossil word from Ancient Chinese where originally means "what is right (for the country)", i.e., "laws and policies")
 * 1)  to be
 * 2)  truly; indeed.
 * 3)  yes; right
 * 4) true; correct
 * (This is a fossil word from Ancient Chinese where originally means "what is right (for the country)", i.e., "laws and policies")
 * 1)  truly; indeed.
 * 2)  yes; right
 * 3) true; correct
 * (This is a fossil word from Ancient Chinese where originally means "what is right (for the country)", i.e., "laws and policies")
 * 1)  truly; indeed.
 * 2)  yes; right
 * 3) true; correct
 * (This is a fossil word from Ancient Chinese where originally means "what is right (for the country)", i.e., "laws and policies")
 * 1)  truly; indeed.
 * 2)  yes; right
 * 3) true; correct
 * (This is a fossil word from Ancient Chinese where originally means "what is right (for the country)", i.e., "laws and policies")
 * 1)  yes; right
 * 2) true; correct
 * (This is a fossil word from Ancient Chinese where originally means "what is right (for the country)", i.e., "laws and policies")
 * 1)  yes; right
 * 2) true; correct
 * (This is a fossil word from Ancient Chinese where originally means "what is right (for the country)", i.e., "laws and policies")
 * 1) true; correct
 * (This is a fossil word from Ancient Chinese where originally means "what is right (for the country)", i.e., "laws and policies")
 * 1) true; correct
 * (This is a fossil word from Ancient Chinese where originally means "what is right (for the country)", i.e., "laws and policies")
 * (This is a fossil word from Ancient Chinese where originally means "what is right (for the country)", i.e., "laws and policies")
 * (This is a fossil word from Ancient Chinese where originally means "what is right (for the country)", i.e., "laws and policies")
 * (This is a fossil word from Ancient Chinese where originally means "what is right (for the country)", i.e., "laws and policies")

Usage notes
When translated as "to be", 是 is used only to link two nouns or nominal expressions.

是 is not used to link a noun and an adjective. The following sentence would be incorrect:

The correct sentence is

Here, is used as a filler to link a noun and an adjective and is not interpreted as "very".

A way to use 是 with an adjective is to use after the adjective to turn it into a noun.

Kanji

 * 1) this
 * 2) right, correct, just

Noun

 * 1) right, justice

Etymology 1
A semantically adopted phonogram (hun'gaja). 是 means "this" in Chinese, and the native Korean word for "this" is.

Etymology 2
A phonetically adopted phonogram (eum'gaja), from the Middle Chinese reading.

Adjective

 * 1) to be