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多年 (duō nián) — many years

Definition

noun
many years

Examples

  • 多年，。
    Tā duō nián cóng shì jiào yù gōng zuò, jīng yàn fēi cháng fēng fù.
    He has been engaged in education for many years and has very rich experience.
  • 多年，。
    duō nián Bú jiàn, nǐ biàn huà zhēn dà.
    Haven't seen you for many years; you've changed so much.
  • 多年，。
    Jīng guò duō nián nǔ lì, tā zhōng yú shí xiàn le mèng xiǎng.
    After many years of effort, he finally realized his dream.

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.

多duōmany
年niányear

多 means many and 年 means year; together they give many years.

Characters in this word

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

多 originally showed two pieces of meat placed together; the repeated meat shape gives the sense of many.

Open 多 →

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
禾禾héwheat; grain
Sound part声符shēngfú
人
人rén年nián
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

年 pairs 禾 (grain) with 人, which gives the sound. Its original meaning was harvest, and it later came to mean a year.

Open 年 →
Appears in
Frequency & Duration

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