Newbie - shi with different meaning

十是十 shí shì shí 10 is 10 ;)

thanks hitokiri6993 share the chinese tongue twister"四是四,十是十,十四是十四,四十是四十,谁能说清十四,四十,四十四,谁来试一试" you can try to say it. when i was in my primary school we alway to do that.i think it good for us pronunciation. "si4 shi4 si4,shi2shi4shi2,shi2si4shi4shi2si4, si4shi2shi4si4shi2,shui2neng2shuo1qing1shi2si4,si4shi2,si4shi2si4,shui2lai2shi4yishi4".

There are several of both. The next shi you're likely to encounter after 是 and 十 is what? Maybe 師 (shī) as in 老師 (lăoshī) - teacher, or 師傅 shīfu - master. That one is first tone. On the other hand, it might be 事 (shì) - matter, affair, business. That one is also pretty high frequency and is also fourth tone. All in all there are dozens more, but the best strategy is probably to learn them as you encounter them. It's easier to tell the difference from context than you expect it will be.

實施-shi2 shi1 -toimplement 事實 - shi4 shi2 - (the) fact (that) 逝世 - shi4 shi4 -to pass away; to die 時 - shi2 - o'clock;time;hour 使 - shi3 - to cause;to enable 市 - shi4 - city 式 - type (as in blood type);form pattern 史 - shi3 - history 師 - shi1 - master; teacher; model 詩 - shi1 - poem;poetry;verse 室- shi4 -room 士- shi4 - scholar;warrior;knight 始-shi3 - to begin 失shi1 - to lose;miss;fail heh..I could go on for hours! There's a shi in neutral tone but unfortunately, I don't know enough shi's. hope this helps!

And there is also 女士 的 'shi' - the shi as found in nǚ shì = lady, Mrs. (literally, "female knight/scholar")

Some common expressions containg a shi: 世界 - world (shì jiè) 时间 - time (shí jiān) 美式 - American style (měi shì) 开始 - to start (kāi shǐ) 但是 - however (dàn shì) 考试 - exam (kǎo shì) As far as I know, there is no neutral shi on its own, in compounds however, it can lose its normal tone and become neutral. I recommend the online dictionary http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/ for this kind of research.

I heard a story a while ago, and I'm embarrassed that I don't remember all the details. When the Chinese government (I think in the early 20th century) was thinking of doing away with characters in favor of a phonetic writing system, a very famous Chinese poet (whose name I do not remember), composed a poem entirely out of words pronounced as shi (with various tones). Written phonetically, the poem was completely meaningless. Written in characters, all became clear. Truly it's not that bad. Spoken Mandarin is generally designed to disambiguate. Most of the one-character words hitokiri listed will rarely if ever be used alone, except in poetry. Two character constructions are made which sometimes add no meaning, but simply make it clear which shi is being used. (Shi is not the only sound to have this ambiguity.)

Thank you all! For a newbie it is a lot - I guess I follow frances idea! CU Lorenz

is there a shi in neutral tone? is there a shi1, shi3?

Here's more than you asked for. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Eating_Poet_in_the_Stone_Den 《施氏食獅史》 石室詩士施氏，嗜獅，誓食十獅。 氏時時適市視獅。 十時，適十獅適市。 是時，適施氏適市。 氏視是十獅，恃矢勢，使是十獅逝世。 氏拾是十獅屍，適石室。 石室濕，氏使侍拭石室。 石室拭，氏始試食是十獅。 食時，始識是十獅，實十石獅屍。 試釋是事。 « Shī Shì shí shī shǐ » Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī. Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī. Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì. Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì. Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì. Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì. Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì. Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī. Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī, shí shí shí shī shī. Shì shì shì shì.

Here it is in audio, with a karaoke-style follow-the-lyrics in simplified Chinese:

Cool to follow the modern-meaning of the poem at the bottom in the black background. Here is an English translation too (from Wikipedia): In a stone den was a poet Shi, who was a lion addict, and had resolved to eat ten. He often went to the market to look for lions. At ten o'clock, ten lions had just arrived at the market. At that time, Shi had just arrived at the market. He saw those ten lions, and using his trusty arrows, caused the ten lions to die. He brought the corpses of the ten lions to the stone den. The stone den was damp. He asked his servants to wipe it. After the stone den was wiped, he tried to eat those ten lions. When he ate, he realized that those ten lions were in fact ten stone lion corpses. Try to explain this matter.

James & Rich: Thanks for finding this. I knew that the poem had been written but hadn't thought to look for the text. I guess the best way to enjoy this poem would be silently. That sounded terrible!

another ref including pinyin with tones http://chinesepod.com/connections/viewpost/rjberki/connect/10+Lions

sophie: 你英語性是：Stone. Stone也是普通的性在英語. 你姓名是Sophie Stone.

I liked what i learned in the "Detroit" lesson: 是事实！（shi4 shi4 shi2) Thats a fact! You could combine with richs first comment: 十是十是事实！shi2 shi4 shi2 shi4 shi4 shi2! I love chinese! ;)

石头 shi2 tou2 ---stone and 石 is also one of the chinese family name. my family name is 石 。hehe. if i want to get a English name how can i say my family name?