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生肖 (shēng xiào) — one of the twelve Chinese zodiac animals (associated with the year of birth)

Definition

生肖 is the standard/educated term for the 12 Chinese zodiac animals tied to birth year. 属相 is a colloquial everyday synonym for the same idea.

noun
one of the twelve Chinese zodiac animals (associated with the year of birth)
Easily confused

Examples

  • 生肖？
    Nǐ de shēng xiào shì shén me?
    What is your Chinese zodiac animal?
  • 生肖。
    Wǒ de shēng xiào shì gǒu.
    My zodiac animal is the Dog.
  • ，，生肖。
    Jīn nián shì lóng nián, míng nián shì shé nián, měi gè shēng xiào shí èr nián chū xiàn yí cì.
    This year is the Year of the Dragon, next year is the Year of the Snake — each zodiac animal appears once every twelve years.

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.

生shēngbirth
肖xiàolikeness

The 生, or birth, and 肖, or likeness, refer to animals linked to a birth year.

Characters in this word

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

生 shows 屮 (a bud) above 一 (the ground), drawing a sprout coming up from the earth.

Open 生 →

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
月月yuèmoon
Sound part声符shēngfú
小
小xiǎo肖xiào
Same sound today

肖 combines 小, which gives the sound, with 月, the moon.

Open 肖 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 5

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