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伪造 (wěi zào) — to forge; to fake; to counterfeit

Definition

伪造 (wěizào) is the formal written verb for 'to forge / counterfeit' — documents, money, works of art. Pairs with 证件, 钞票, 签名 etc.; 假冒 and 造假 are closer to passing fakes off, 山寨 is colloquial for knockoffs.

verb
to forgeto faketo counterfeit

Examples

  • 伪造。
    Tā yīn wèi wěi zào zhèng jiàn bèi jǐng chá zhuā le.
    He was arrested by the police for forging documents.
  • 伪造。
    Zhè pī wěi zào de chāo piào kàn qǐ lái fēi cháng bī zhēn.
    This batch of counterfeit banknotes looks very realistic.
  • 伪造。
    Zhuān jiā jiàn dìng chū zhè fú huà shì wěi zào de.
    Experts identified that this painting is a forgery.

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.

伪wěifalse
造zàomake

伪 means false and 造 means make, giving the sense of making a false document.

Characters in this word

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 偽; 伪 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
亻Written in full as人rénman
Sound part声符shēngfú
為
為wéi偽wěi
Same sound today

The modern 伪 comes from the traditional form 偽, where 亻 (man) marks the idea as about a person and 為 gives the sound and means “to make”; together they originally meant “artificial”.

Open 伪 →

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
辵辵chuòto walk
口口kǒu
Sound part声符shēngfú
屮
屮chè造zào
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

Its origin is unclear, but early forms of 造 include 辵 (to walk) and 口, with 屮 as a sound part, and mean go or arrive.

Open 造 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9HSK 2.0 Level 6Crime & Police5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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