HSK 6 Connectors & compound sentences
乃 / 乃是 / 乃至(于)
Namely / even up to (乃 / 乃至)
Structure A + 乃(是) + B (emphatic copula) / … + 乃至(于) + extreme case
乃 (nǎi) is a Classical Chinese word still alive in cultured language, with two uses. (1) As an emphatic COPULA, it means "is precisely / is none other than": 失败乃成功之母 = "failure is precisely the mother of success"; 乃是 reinforces that "is" with gravity. (2) 乃至 and its variant 乃至于 mean "and even, up to", marking an ESCALATION: after listing something, a larger or extreme case is added, 全国乃至全世界 = "the whole country and even the entire world". It belongs to literary and essayistic register; in speech one would say 是 or 甚至.
Examples
- 失败乃成功之母。
Failure is precisely the mother of success.
- 诚信乃是立业之本。
Integrity is none other than the foundation of any enterprise.
- 这项技术影响全国乃至全世界。
This technology affects the whole country and even the entire world.
- 此举关乎个人乃至于整个行业的未来。
This move concerns the individual and even the future of the whole industry.
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