全家 (quán jiā) — the whole family, the entire family

Definition

noun

the whole familythe entire family

全家。
quán jiā Yì qǐ qù gōng yuán sàn bù.
The whole family goes to the park for a walk together.
全家。
quán jiā Dōu hěn xǐ huan zhè ge xīn fáng zi.
The whole family really likes this new house.
全家。
Měi nián chūn jié quán jiā dōu huì jù zài yì qǐ chī fàn.
Every Spring Festival, the whole family gathers together to eat.

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.

“全” gives whole or all, “家” gives family; together it names the entire family.

Characters in this word

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

The shape puts 入 together with 玉 to show a whole piece of jade, so it means complete or whole.

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

宀宀miánroof

Sound part声符shēngfú

𢑓

𢑓𢑓家jiā

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

The early drawing of 家 showed a roof 宀 over a male-pig sign 𢑓 that gave the pronunciation; the lower part later changed shape.

Appears in