未婚妻 (wèi hūn qī) — fiancée | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

Refers specifically to one's fiancée (the woman one is engaged to marry). Differs from 妻子 ('wife') — the marriage has not yet taken place.

noun

fiancée

Measure word · 个

未婚妻。
Tā shì wǒ de wèi hūn qī.
She is my fiancée.
未婚妻。
Wǒ de wèi hūn qī shì yī shēng.
My fiancée is a doctor.
未婚妻。
Wǒ hé wèi hūn qī jì huà míng nián jié hūn.
My fiancée and I plan to get married next year.

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.

未婚

偏正Modifier + head

未 means 'not yet', 婚 means 'marry', and 妻 means 'wife', giving a woman not yet married.

Characters in this word

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

The shape 未 shows a tree with extra branches spreading above its trunk, like lush, overlapping limbs.

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

女昏婚

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

昏

Same sound today

婚 uses 女 (woman) for the meaning and 昏 for the sound hūn.

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

妻 combines 肀, a hand grabbing hair, with 女, a woman, showing a man grabbing a woman's hair to show ownership.

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