时好时坏
shí hǎo shí huài · HSK 7
good
🎢 时(time) brackets 好(good) then 坏(bad): good at times, bad at times
The pattern 时...时... pairs two opposites to mean alternating between them. Here 好 (good) and 坏 (bad) swap places: a condition that keeps flipping, never steady.
时 — sun 日 + temple/measure 寺
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 日 (sun) gives the meaning of time or season, while 寺 (shí) supplies the sound. Early forms used 之 as the phonetic before 寺 replaced it. The core sense 'season, time, hour' has stayed stable since ancient Chinese.
好 — woman 女 + child 子
好 is an associative compound showing a woman 女 beside a child 子, depicting a mother with her baby. From this image of maternal affection it came to mean 'good, fine, pleasing.' The reading hǎo means 'good'; read hào it means 'to like.'
时 — sun 日 + temple/measure 寺
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 日 (sun) gives the meaning of time or season, while 寺 (shí) supplies the sound. Early forms used 之 as the phonetic before 寺 replaced it. The core sense 'season, time, hour' has stayed stable since ancient Chinese.
坏 — earth 土 + 不 (not)
A modern simplified form. The left side 土 (earth) suggests something physical or material, while the right side 不 (not/negative) acts as a semantic hint meaning 'not good.' The traditional form 壞 used 褱 as a phonetic component, but the simplified 坏 reuses an older variant character.