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小汽车 (xiǎo qì chē) — passenger car; car (small automobile)

Definition

noun
passenger carcar (small automobile)
Measure word · 辆

Examples

  • 小汽车。
    Wǒ mǎi le yí liàng xiǎo qì chē.
    I bought a car.
  • 小汽车。
    Zhè liàng xiǎo qì chē hěn piào liang.
    This car is very beautiful.
  • 小汽车。
    Tā měi tiān kāi xiǎo qì chē shàng bān.
    He drives a car to work every day.

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.

小xiǎosmall
汽车car
汽qìsteam车chēvehicle
偏正Modifier + head

小 means small, and 汽车 means car; together they denote a passenger car.

Characters in this word

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

  • 八八bāto divide; to separate
  • 丨丨gǔnsmall object

The shape of 小 comes from three small dots, later elongated into its strokes; the apparent parts 八 and 丨 are a later way of seeing it.

Open 小 →

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
氵Written in full as水shuǐwater
Sound part声符shēngfú
气
气qì汽
Same sound today

The 氵 part is water, and 气 is used for the sound and also means air, so 汽 shows water in an air-like form.

Open 汽 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 車; 车 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 車 was drawn as a carriage seen from above, with wheels on both sides and a shaft at the front; the simplified 车 is a later shorthand.

Open 车 →
Appears in
Vehicles

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