Usage of 事 , 物 , and 东西

[TheDoctor]

Hello All,

Just curious... In my vocab study I have three words which mean "thing" and I'm not sure about their usage in different contexts.

事 , 物 , and 东西

Could someone please clarify this for me and perhaps give an example of how to distinguish? Many thanks ^^ !

[leeyah]

事 matter, affair, thing, business (abstract in meaning)

国家大事　national affairs

你有什么事? what's the matter with you?

他有事请假. He's got some personal business to attend to and is asking leave of absence.

这事儿容易办. This is easily done, there's nothing to it.

物 is for matter & substance, usually not used on its own:

物质 substance

动物 animal

怪物 monster

货物 goods, merchandise

事物 thing, object

东西 thing, stuff, matter (literally means 'eastwest', 'all things froms east to west'), vast usage:

他买东西去了 He's gone shopping.

语言这东西，不是随便可以学好的 A thing such as learning a foreign language is not easily done

他是什么东西? What's he like?

雾很大，十几步以外的东西就看不见了 It's so foggy you can't see beyond a few steps.

For more examples try>>句库

[roddy]

Moved a bunch of posts to other topics - I'm sure you'll be able to find them. New topics are free, and if someone asks an off-topic question, you can always send in a post report to ask for it to be split off.