少年宫 (shào nián gōng) — Children's Palace (extracurricular activity cen…

Definition

A state-run center where school-age children take extracurricular classes like music, art, and dance — like an after-school enrichment hub.

noun

Children's Palace (extracurricular activity center for school-age children)

Measure word · 座

少年宫。
Měi gè zhōu mò tā dōu qù shào nián gōng xué huà huà.
Every weekend he goes to the Children's Palace to learn painting.
少年宫。
Zhè ge shào nián gōng yǒu shū fǎ bān hé wǔ dǎo bān.
This Children's Palace has calligraphy classes and dance classes.
少年宫。
Wǒ xiǎo shí hou zài shào nián gōng xué guò gāng qín.
I learned piano at the Children's Palace when I was little.

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.

少年youth

偏正Modifier + head

少 young and 年 years make 少年 youth, which with 宫 palace names a youth palace.

Characters in this word

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

The form 少 is drawn as four dots, perhaps three grains of sand, to indicate a few or a little.

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.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 宮; 宫 is its simplified writing.

宀呂宮

The traditional form 宮 is built from 宀 and 呂.