伯明翰 (Bó míng hàn) — Birmingham | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Birmingham

伯明翰。
Bó míng hàn Shì yīng guó dì èr dà chéng shì.
Birmingham is the second largest city in the UK.
伯明翰。
Wǒ xià ge yuè yào qù Bó míng hàn chū chāi.
I'm going to Birmingham on a business trip next month.
伯明翰。
Bó míng hàn De gōng yè lì shǐ fēi cháng yōu jiǔ.
Birmingham's industrial history is very long.

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 only spell the foreign place name Birmingham; they carry no separate meaning here.

Sound-only characters

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

人人rénperson

Sound part声符shēngfú

白

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

伯 pairs 人 (person) with 白, which gives its sound.

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

羽羽yǔfeather

Sound part声符shēngfú

倝

倝gàn翰hàn

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

翰 pairs 倝, which gives the sound, with 羽, which shows a feather.

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