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亚洲 (Yà zhōu) — Asia

Definition

noun
Asia

Examples

  • 亚洲。
    Wǒ míng nián xiǎng qù Yà zhōu lǚ yóu.
    I want to travel to Asia next year.
  • 亚洲。
    Yà zhōu Yǒu hěn duō gǔ lǎo de guó jiā.
    Asia has many ancient countries.
  • 亚洲。
    Zhōng wén zài Yà zhōu hěn cháng jiàn.
    Chinese is very common in Asia.

Origin

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.

亚yàAsia
洲zhōucontinent

The word combines 'Asia' with 'continent' to name the continent of Asia.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 亞; 亚 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 亞 likely shows an overhead view of a construction, perhaps a 亞-shaped tomb. Its later simplified form 亚 is just a shorthand.

Open 亚 →

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
水水shuǐwater
Sound part声符shēngfú
州
州zhōu洲zhōu
Same sound today

洲 is built from 水 (water) and 州, which gives the sound.

Open 洲 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 4HSK 2.0 Level 4Geography & Landforms5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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