五时 (wǔ shí) — five o'clock | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

five o'clock

Easily confused

五时。
Wǒ men yuē dìng zài wǔ shí jiàn miàn.
We agreed to meet at five o'clock.
五时。
Měi tiān wǔ shí zhǔn shí xià bān.
I get off work on time at five o'clock every day.
五时，。
wǔ shí Yǐ guò, tiān sè jiàn àn.
It's already past five, and the sky is getting dark.

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

五 “five” and 时 “hour” give the time of five o'clock.

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.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 時; 时 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

日日rìsun; day

Sound part声符shēngfú

之

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 時 pairs 日 (sun/day) with 之 as the part that gives the sound; the simplified 时 is not the form described.