意思

意思 (yìsi) is the Chinese noun for 'meaning' — the standard way to ask what a word, sentence, or gesture signifies: 这是什么意思？ ('What does this mean?'). Beyond literal meaning, 意思 has two important secondary uses every learner should know.

First, the adjective phrase 有意思 means 'interesting / fun' (这本书很有意思 — 'this book is really interesting'); 没意思 is its opposite ('boring / no fun'). Second, in social contexts 意思 carries a softer 'gesture / token of feeling' sense: 一点小意思 ('just a little something / a small token') is what you say when offering a gift modestly. Pronunciation note: the second 思 is in neutral tone (yìsi, not yìsī), and native speech often shortens it further to yìs.