五十分 (wǔ shí fēn) — fifty minutes; 50 minutes

Definition

Compound noun meaning a duration of fifty minutes (五十分 of an hour). Note that 50 here is a numeral, not the test score 50分.

noun
fifty minutes50 minutes

Examples

  • 五十分。
    Tā měi tiān jiān chí pǎo bù wǔ shí fēn.
    He insists on running for fifty minutes every day.
  • 五十分。
    Kǎo shì shí jiān hái yǒu wǔ shí fēn jiù jié shù le.
    There are still fifty minutes left until the exam ends.
  • 五十分。
    Cóng jiā dào gōng sī kāi chē dà yuē xū yào wǔ shí fēn.
    It takes about fifty minutes to drive from home to the office.

Origin

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

An older form had a crossed mark between a top bar and a bottom bar. The modern 五 keeps those bars, while the original idea is uncertain.

Open 五 →

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

The early shape 十 was mostly a single vertical stroke, sometimes with a dot, and later gained a horizontal stroke to form a cross. For the number ten, it marked the next digit above one.

Open 十 →

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

分 pairs 八 (to separate) with 刀 (knife), showing something cut apart with a knife.

Open 分 →

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