大雁 (dà yàn) — wild goose | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

wild goose

Measure word · 只

，大雁。
Qiū tiān, dà yàn fēi xiàng nán fāng.
In autumn, wild geese fly south.
大雁。
Tā zài hú biān kàn dào le yì qún dà yàn.
He saw a flock of wild geese by the lake.
大雁。
dà yàn Pái chéng rén zì xíng fēi guò tiān kōng.
The wild geese flew across the sky in a V formation.

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.

雁yànwild goose

The 雁 wild goose is called 大雁 as a fixed name; 大 great labels the familiar kind, not size.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

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

隹隹zhuī

Sound part声符shēngfú

厂

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

For 雁, 厂 gives the sound, while 人 and 隹 are meaning parts.

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