故意

故意 (gùyì) means 'deliberately, on purpose, or intentionally' — it marks that an action was done with conscious intent rather than by accident. It usually sits before the verb: 他故意迟到 'he was late on purpose.' Two differences from English 'on purpose.' First, 故意 carries a strong negative or accusatory tone — it almost always implies the intentional act was annoying, harmful, or blameworthy, so you use it to complain ('you did that on purpose!'

). To say you did something good deliberately, you more often use 特意 (tèyì, 'specially / went out of one's way to'). Second, unlike neutral English 'intentionally,' 故意 is rarely used for neutral or positive intent; 他特意来看你 ('he came specially to see you') would not use 故意. Register is neutral and common in everyday speech.