劳拉 (láo lā) — Laura (female name) | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Laura (female name)

劳拉。
Wǒ de tóng shì láo lā lái zì měi guó.
My colleague Laura is from the United States.
劳拉？。
Nǐ rèn shi láo lā ma? tā shì wǒ men bān de xīn tóng xué.
Do you know Laura? She's a new student in our class.
劳拉。
láo lā Zuó tiān gěi wǒ fā le yì fēng yóu jiàn.
Laura sent me an email yesterday.

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 劳拉 have no meaning of their own here; together they spell Laura.

Sound-only characters

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 勞; 劳 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

𬡤

𬡤𬡤勞láo

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

The traditional form 勞 uses 力 for the meaning and 𬡤 for the sound; the simplified 劳 is a later shortened shape.

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

Sound part声符shēngfú

立

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

拉 pairs 手 (hand) with 立, a component that supplies the sound.