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我家 (wǒ jiā) — my home, my family

Definition

我家 covers BOTH 'my home/house' and 'my family' — the same word is used for the place and the people, so context decides. Compare 家庭 (jiātíng), which is a more formal word for 'family' as a unit.

noun
my homemy family

Examples

  • 我家。
    Míng tiān wǒ qù wǒ jiā chī fàn.
    Tomorrow I'm going to my home for a meal.
  • 我家。
    wǒ jiā Yǒu liǎng zhī māo.
    My family has two cats.
  • 。
    Tā zhù zài wǒ jiā páng biān.
    He lives next to my home.

Origin

Characters in this word

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

The glyph 我 originally drew a trident-like weapon. It was borrowed purely for its sound to write the pronoun "I", so the picture and the meaning are unrelated.

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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
宀宀miánroof
Sound part声符shēngfú
𢑓
𢑓𢑓家jiā
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The early drawing of 家 showed a roof 宀 over a male-pig sign 𢑓 that gave the pronunciation; the lower part later changed shape.

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Appears in
Family & KinshipHome & Housing5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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