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放学 (fàng xué) — to get out of school, to finish school for the day

Definition

放学 means the whole school day is over and you go home — not just one class finishing. Use 下课 when a single class ends.

verb
to get out of schoolto finish school for the day

Examples

  • 放学。
    Wǒ men měi tiān xià wǔ sì diǎn fàng xué.
    We get out of school at four every afternoon.
  • 放学？
    Nǐ fàng xué yǐ hòu xiǎng zuò shén me?
    What do you want to do after school?
  • 。
    Wǒ fàng le xué jiù huí jiā zuò zuò yè.
    I go home and do homework as soon as school is out.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

放fàngdismiss
学xuéschool

放 means dismiss, and 学 refers to the school day, giving the sense of ending classes for the day.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
攵Written in full as攴pūhand, action
Sound part声符shēngfú
方
方fāng放fàng
Same sound today

放 uses 方 for its sound and 攵, a hand/action part, to mark an action of release.

Open 放 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 學; 学 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 學 may have used 爻 and 六 for sound, with hands and a child added later; the simplified 学 is a shorthand.

Open 学 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 3School & Education5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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