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根本

gēn běn 1–3

fundamental; basic; root; simply; absolutely (not); (not) at all

HSK level
HSK 3
HSK 2.0 level 5 · HSK 3.0 level 3
Characters
2
根 · 本
Syllables
2
gēn běn
Frequency
Common
corpus count 591

Part of speech: d,n,a

Character by character

  • 根gēn10 strokesHSK 3root, base(d on); foundation
  • 本běn5 strokesHSK 1root, origin, source; basis

Each character links to its stroke order page with a tracing and a writing exercise.

Example sentences

  • 我根本不信。

    Wǒ gēn běn bù xìn

    I don't believe it at all.

  • 他根本不相信我。

    Tā gēn běn bù xiāng xìn wǒ

    He doesn't believe me at all.

  • 我根本不需要这个。

    Wǒ gēn běn bù xū yào zhè ge

    I don't need this at all.

  • 这根本不是确定的。

    Zhè gēn běn bú shì què dìng de

    It is by no means certain.

Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR), contributed by their community.

Words with the same characters

These words share at least one character with 根本. Reading them together is how the character starts to stick — the same characters in a different context.

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