hui (回) — to return, to turn back, a time in Chinese

simplified

traditional

huí

to return · to go back · to turn around · to reply · a time

HSK 1 笔画 6 部首囗 (enclosure) 声调第二声 (rising) all hui readings →

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笔顺 bǐshùn · Stroke order

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字源 zìyuán Etymology & Structure

字源洞见 zìyuán dòngjiàn · Etymological Insight

回 huí is a pictograph of water coiling back on itself. The oracle-bone form is a spiral, the swirl of an eddy or whirlpool turning in on its own center. Over time the curves squared off into the modern shape: a small enclosure 口 nested inside a larger one 囗, one loop within another. The original picture of circling water gave the character its core meaning, to turn back, to come around again.

From the coiling motion, the senses unwind:

1. To return, to go back. The basic movement homeward: 回家 huí jiā (to go home), 回来 huílái (to come back), 回去 huíqù (to go back).
2. To turn around in word or mind. Sending something back the way it came: 回答 huídá (to answer), 回信 huíxìn (to reply by letter), 回忆 huíyì (to recall, to turn the mind back).
3. A time, an occurrence (measure word). One turn of an event: 一回 yì huí (once), 这回 zhè huí (this time), 上回 shàng huí (last time).
4. A chapter of a novel. Classical novels count their installments in 回, each a turn of the story: 《红楼梦》一百二十回 "Dream of the Red Chamber in 120 chapters."

The thread is the turn back. Whether the body returns home, a letter returns an answer, the mind returns to a memory, or a story turns to its next chapter, 回 is the motion of coming back around, the eddy completing its loop.

构词 gòucí Word-Formation Patterns

构词规律 gòucí guīlǜ · The Turn Back 回 as physical return → 回家 go home · 回来 come back · 回去 go back · 回国 return to one's country
回 + verb (send back the same way) → 回答 to answer · 回信 to write back · 回电 to call back · 回报 to repay
回 as turning the mind back → 回忆 to recall · 回顾 to look back · 回味 to savor in memory
回 as measure word → 一回 once · 这回 this time · 上回 last time · 下回 next time

回家 huí jiā To Return

回家 huí jiā to go home; to return home

V 动词 dòngcí

回 huí (return) + 家 jiā (home). The everyday verb for heading home: 我要回家了 "I'm going home now." A close pattern is 回国 huí guó, to return to one's home country.

下班以后我直接回家。

Xiàbān yǐhòu wǒ zhíjiē huí jiā.

I go straight home after work.

回来 huílái to come back; to return (toward the speaker)

V 动词 dòngcí

回 huí (return) + 来 lái (come, toward here). To come back to where the speaker is. Its mirror is 回去 huíqù, to go back to somewhere away from the speaker. The direction of 来 / 去 sets the point of view.

他昨天晚上才回来。

Tā zuótiān wǎnshang cái huílái.

He only got back last night.

辨析 biànxī · 回来 vs. 回去回来 is returning toward where the speaker stands: 快回来 "come back here." 回去 huíqù is returning away from the speaker, back to where one came from: 我该回去了 "I should head back (home)." The choice tracks the speaker's location, exactly like 来 and 去.

回答 huídá To Reply & Recall

回答 huídá to answer; to reply; an answer

V/N 动名词

回 huí (back) + 答 dá (to respond). To send a response back to a question: 回答问题 "to answer a question." As a noun, the answer itself: 一个满意的回答 "a satisfactory answer."

请回答我的问题。

Qǐng huídá wǒ de wèntí.

Please answer my question.

辨析 biànxī · 回答 vs. 回复回答 answers a question, spoken or written. 回复 huífù is to reply to a message, letter, or request, common in email and formal correspondence: 回复邮件 "to reply to an email." You 回答 a question but 回复 a message.

回忆 huíyì to recall; to look back on; a memory

V/N 动名词

回 huí (turn back) + 忆 yì (to remember). To turn the mind back to the past. As a noun, a remembered scene: 美好的回忆 "fond memories." The eddy here loops through time rather than space.

这首歌让我回忆起童年。

Zhè shǒu gē ràng wǒ huíyì qǐ tóngnián.

This song makes me recall my childhood.

一回 yì huí A Time — the Measure Word

语义洞见 yǔyì dòngjiàn · Semantic Insight

Because a return is one completed turn, 回 became a measure word for occurrences, much like 次 cì. You can say 来过一回 or 来过一次 ("came once") with little difference, though 回 is warmer and more colloquial, at home in spoken northern Mandarin. The time-words built on it are everyday: 这回 zhè huí (this time), 上回 shàng huí (last time), 下回 xià huí (next time).

One idiom turns on the measure word itself: 那是另一回事 nà shì lìng yì huí shì, "that is another matter entirely," literally "another one-turn affair." And the classical storyteller's hook 且听下回分解 qiě tīng xià huí fēnjiě, "and now hear the next chapter unfold," uses 回 in its chapter sense, the tale turning to its next loop.

这回 zhè huí this time; on this occasion

PHR 短语 duǎnyǔ

这 zhè (this) + 回 huí (time). The colloquial "this time," interchangeable with 这次 zhè cì but a touch more casual: 这回我一定赢 "this time I'll win for sure."

这回你可说对了。

Zhè huí nǐ kě shuō duì le.

This time you've got it right.

回头 huítóu to turn one's head; later; to repent

V 动词 dòngcí

回 huí (turn back) + 头 tóu (head). To turn the head around, and by extension "in a little while" (回头见 "see you later") or to turn back from a wrong path (回头是岸 "to repent is to reach the shore").

我现在很忙，回头再说。

Wǒ xiànzài hěn máng, huítóu zài shuō.

I'm busy now, let's talk later.

成语 chéngyǔ Idioms & Set Phrases

回头是岸 huí tóu shì àn turn your head and there is the shore: it is never too late to repent Lit: turn-the-head-is-shore. From the Buddhist 苦海无边，回头是岸 ("the sea of suffering is boundless; turn back and the shore is there"). To stop a wrong course and come back is itself salvation.

回心转意 huí xīn zhuǎn yì to turn the heart and shift the will: to change one's mind, to relent Lit: turn-heart-shift-intent. Said of someone who softens, reconsiders, or comes back to a relationship or decision they had set aside.

妙手回春 miào shǒu huí chūn a skilled hand brings back spring: a brilliant doctor restores the dying to health Lit: marvelous-hand-return-spring. High praise for a physician whose skill brings a gravely ill patient back to life, as spring returns to a dead landscape.

荡气回肠 dàng qì huí cháng stirring the breath and coiling the gut: deeply moving, soul-stirring Lit: surging-breath-coiling-innards. Said of music, writing, or a story so moving that it seems to turn one's very insides. 回 keeps its coiling sense here.

记忆法 jìyìfǎ · Master Retention Image

See an eddy in a stream, water coiling back on its own center, one loop inside another. That spiral, squared into two nested boxes, is the whole character. Every meaning of 回 is the eddy completing its turn.

The body loops back home (回家, 回来). A question loops back as an answer (回答). The mind loops back into the past (回忆). The head turns and a wanderer comes back from a wrong road (回头是岸). And each completed turn of an event is counted as 一回, one time around. Wherever something comes back to where it began, the eddy of 回 is turning.