What does 乃 mean here?

Question

On a particular forum is a banner reading:

此乃舊貼唯讀區

which I imagine is a highfalutin way of saying that this thread is read-only.

Now, 乃 has many senses in my dictionary. What is the sense of 乃 being used here? My best guess would be "only", in the sense that this page is "nothing more than" a read-only area.

此乃 = This is, 舊貼 = old posts, 唯讀區 = read-only area. — Stan, Jul 23 '13 at 06:08
From what I could read from the sentence it means the word "is" as mentioned by Stan — Yao Bo Lu, Jul 23 '13 at 06:24

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 23 '13 at 10:08

6

Here "乃" means "be". This sentence means "This area is for old posts, and these posts are read-only."

Next time, if you find "此乃" these two characters together or a noun+乃 together, "乃" properly means "be". For example:

此乃我的书.
This is my book.

意识乃是大脑的一种自然属性。
Consciousness is an emergent property of the brain.

edited Jul 23 '13 at 10:08

Alenanno

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answered Jul 23 '13 at 06:33

dohremifa

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It should be emphasized that 乃 is an ancient expression in Chinese -- though it's occasionally used today, the whole sentence should be "of some old-style". To some extent, 此乃我的书 sounds a little funny/silly because 我的 is a modern expression. In a formal occasion, such a sentence will be criticized as 半文不白 (mixed style of classical and vernacular Chinese). However, compared with a single 乃, the compound verb 乃是 sounds a limited little more modern, so 意识乃是大脑的一种自然属性 is OK. – Stan Jul 23 '13 at 10:27
Stan you should make your own answer. I'd upvote you :) – deutschZuid Jul 23 '13 at 23:50
此乃我书, 的 is not required in the classical form. – 杨以轩 Jul 24 '13 at 04:57
@deutschZuid: such a complement to this answer would better be a comment so that visitors won't miss it. Earning reputations is fun, though :) – Stan Jul 24 '13 at 09:41

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 24 '13 at 03:09

-1

In your giving sentence, it means is (be)

but as a chinese ,this verb is hardly use in communicating or writing, this is a verb which uses in ancient chinese

answered Jul 24 '13 at 03:09

niko

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Disagree. 乃 is still very much in use in writing today. – 杨以轩 Jul 24 '13 at 04:59

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 12 '13 at 13:00

My suggestion is that you'd better have a Chinese dictionary when you learn it, for example <新华字典>. All the usual meaning will be presented with example. The 乃 in your example has the same meaning in the following example:吾乃常山赵子龙也from （三国演义）.

What does 乃 mean here?

3 Answers3