岔 (chà) — (noun) fork in the road, bifurcation, branch (of a road, river, mountain range); (verb) to branch off; to diverge; to change the subject; to stagger (times)
Definition
岔 covers both senses: a physical fork in a road or river (noun, e.g. 岔口) and the verb 'to branch off / change the subject / stagger.' For diverging from a course or topic, 打岔 is the set verb 'to interrupt'; 偏离 means 'to deviate' from a path or plan.
noun
fork in the roadbifurcationbranch (of a road, river, mountain range)
verb
to branch offto divergeto change the subjectto stagger (times)
Easily confused
- 盆pénlook-alikebasin (container for liquids)
- 差chàsound-alike(adjective) poor, inferior, not up to standard
- 扮bànlook-aliketo dress up (as), to disguise oneself as
- 份fènlook-alike(classifier) for documents, newspapers, magazines, contracts, gifts, portions of food, etc.
- 盼pànlook-aliketo long for, to look forward to, to eagerly await
Examples
- ，。Qián miàn yǒu yí gè chà kǒu, wǒ men zǒu zuǒ biān nà tiáo lù.There's a fork ahead; let's take the left road.
- ，。Tā shuō huà shí zǒng ài chà kāi huà tí, ràng rén gēn bú shàng.He always likes to change the subject when talking, making it hard to follow.
- ，。Wèi le jiǎn shǎo yōng dǔ, gōng sī bǎ xià bān shí jiān chà kāi le.To reduce congestion, the company staggered the off-work times.
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