三明治 (sān míng zhì) — sandwich | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

sandwich

Measure word · 个

三明治。
Wǒ zhōng wǔ chī le yí gè sān míng zhì.
I ate a sandwich for lunch.
三明治。
Zhè jiā diàn de sān míng zhì hěn hǎo chī.
The sandwiches at this shop are delicious.
三明治？
Nǐ néng bāng wǒ zuò yí gè sān míng zhì ma?
Can you make me a sandwich?

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

The characters 三, 明, and 治 carry no meaning of their own here; together they spell sandwich.

Sound-only characters

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

三 is drawn as three parallel strokes, like 一 with one stroke and 二 with two.

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

日月明

明 combines 日 (sun) and 月 (moon), showing the sun just rising while the moon has not yet set, or two bright objects in the sky, to express brightness.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

台

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

治 has 水 (water) and 台; 台 gives the sound, and the character named a river.

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