而已

Chinese

		and; as well as; but (not) and; as well as; but (not); yet (not); (shows causal relation); (shows change of state); (shows contrast)	already; to stop; then already; to stop; then; afterwards
simp. and trad. (而已)		而	已
anagram		已而

Pronunciation

Rime
Character	而	已	已
Reading #	1/1	1/2	2/2
Initial (聲)	日 (38)	以 (36)	以 (36)
Final (韻)	之 (19)	之 (19)	之 (19)
Tone (調)	Level (Ø)	Rising (X)	Departing (H)
Openness (開合)	Open	Open	Open
Division (等)	III	III	III
Fanqie	如之切	羊己切	羊吏切
Baxter	nyi	yiX	yiH
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/ȵɨ/	/jɨX/	/jɨH/
Pan Wuyun	/ȵɨ/	/jɨX/	/jɨH/
Shao Rongfen	/ȵʑie/	/ieX/	/ieH/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/ȵɨ/	/jɨX/	/jɨH/
Li Rong	/ȵiə/	/iəX/	/iəH/
Wang Li	/ȵʑĭə/	/jĭəX/	/jĭəH/
Bernhard Karlgren	/ȵʑi/	/iX/	/iH/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	ér	yǐ	yì
Expected Cantonese Reflex	ji4	ji5	ji6

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	而	已
Reading #	1/1	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	ér	yǐ
Middle Chinese	‹ nyi ›	‹ yiX ›
Old Chinese	/*nə/	/*ɢ(r)əʔ/
English	and, but	cease; already
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; * Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; * Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; * Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	而	已
Reading #	1/1	1/1
No.	2720	14924
Phonetic component	而	已
Rime group	之	之
Rime subdivision	0	0
Corresponding MC rime	而	以
Old Chinese	/*njɯ/	/*lɯʔ/
Notes		巳轉註字

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): éryǐ

  (Zhuyin): ㄦˊ ㄧˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): ji⁴ ji⁵

• Southern Min (Hokkien, POJ): lî-í / jî-í

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: éryǐ
    • Zhuyin: ㄦˊ ㄧˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: éryǐ
    • Wade–Giles: êrh²-i³
    • Yale: ér-yǐ
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: erlyii
    • Palladius: эри (eri)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ˀɤɻ³⁵ i²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: ji⁴ ji⁵
    • Yale: yìh yíh
    • Cantonese Pinyin: ji⁴ ji⁵
    • Guangdong Romanization: yi⁴ yi⁵
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /jiː²¹ jiː¹³/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien: Xiamen, Quanzhou, Taipei)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: lî-í
    • Tâi-lô: lî-í
    • Phofsit Daibuun: li'ie
    • IPA (Taipei): /li²⁴⁻¹¹ i⁵³/
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /li²⁴⁻²² i⁵⁵⁴/
    • IPA (Xiamen): /li²⁴⁻²² i⁵³/
  • (Hokkien: Zhangzhou, Kaohsiung, Yilan)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: jî-í
    • Tâi-lô: jî-í
    • Phofsit Daibuun: ji'ie
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /zi²³⁻³³ i⁴¹/
    • IPA (Yilan): /d͡zi²⁴⁻³³ i⁵³/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /d͡zi¹³⁻²² i⁵³/

---

• Middle Chinese: nyi yiX|yiH

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*nə  ɢ(r)əʔ/

  (Zhengzhang): /*njɯ  lɯʔ/

Particle

而已

1. (at the end of a phrase) that's all; nothing more; is all

   混混日子而已  ―  hùnhùn rìzi éryǐ  ―  to just drift through life

   如此而已，豈有他哉！ [MSC, trad.]
   如此而已，岂有他哉！ [MSC, simp.]

   Rúcǐ éryǐ, qǐ yǒu tā zāi! [Pinyin]

   That's all there is to it!

   僅此而已。／仅此而已。  ―  Jǐn cǐ éryǐ.  ―  That is all.

Synonyms

edit

• 云爾 (yún'ěr) (literary)
• 但定 (nā-tiāⁿ) (Min Nan)
• 定定 (Hakka)
• 爾爾／尔尔 (niā-niā) (Hokkien)
• 罷了／罢了

 

Variety	Location	Words edit
Classical Chinese		而已, 云爾
Formal (Written Standard Chinese)		而已, 罷了
Northeastern Mandarin	Beijing	罷了
	Taiwan	而已
	Malaysia	罷了
	Singapore	而已
Jianghuai Mandarin	Yangzhou	罷了
Cantonese	Guangzhou	啫, 咋, 之嘛
	Hong Kong	啫, 咋, 之嘛
	Jiangmen (Xinhui)	啫, 之嘛
	Taishan	之嘛, 咋
	Kaiping (Chikan)	之嘛, 逸, 咿
	Enping (Niujiang)	之嘛, 咋
	Singapore (Guangfu)	啫, 之嘛
Hakka	Miaoli (N. Sixian)	定定
	Pingtung (Neipu; S. Sixian)	定定
	Hsinchu County (Zhudong; Hailu)	定定, 定
	Taichung (Dongshi; Dabu)	忒等
	Hsinchu County (Qionglin; Raoping)	定定
	Yunlin (Lunbei; Zhao'an)	定
Southern Min	Xiamen	爾爾, 爾
	Quanzhou	爾爾, 爾
	Zhangzhou	爾爾, 爾
	Tainan	爾爾
	Penang (Hokkien)	爾
	Singapore (Hokkien)	爾, 爾爾
	Jieyang	定

Dialectal synonyms of 而已 (“(sentence-final particle) just; simply”) [map]

Derived terms

• 僅此而已／仅此而已

 

Japanese

Kanji in this term
而	已
の Jinmeiyō	み Jinmeiyō

For pronunciation and definitions of 而已 – see the following entry.

【のみ】 [particle] only, limited to [adverb] alone [adverb] merely Alternative spellings 已, 耳

(This term, 而已, is an alternative spelling (archaic) of the above term.)