指甲 (zhǐ jia) — fingernail; toenail | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

指甲 means a human fingernail or toenail. 爪子 is for animal claws — do not use it for people.

noun

fingernailtoenail

Measure word · 片

Examples

指甲。
Tā de zhǐ jia tú le hóng sè de zhǐ jia yóu.
She painted her fingernails with red nail polish.
指甲。
Wǒ měi gè yuè dōu huì qù xiū zhǐ jia.
I go to get my nails done every month.
指甲？
Nǐ duō jiǔ jiǎn yí cì zhǐ jia?
How often do you cut your fingernails?

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.

指 (finger) and 甲 (nail) combine to mean the nail on a finger.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

扌旨指

Meaning part形符xíngfú

扌Written in full as手shǒu

Sound part声符shēngfú

旨

旨zhǐ指zhǐ

Same sound today

The left part 扌 is the hand form 手. The right part 旨 gives the sound.

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

甲 is drawn as a hard protective shell, carapace, or scales of an animal, or as armor made of connected plates.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 7-9 HSK 2.0 Level 6 Body Parts 5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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