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省会 (shěng huì) — provincial capital

Definition

The capital city of a Chinese province (e.g., 成都 for Sichuan). 首都 is the national capital (北京), and 首府 is a region's capital — 省会 refers specifically to provincial capitals.

noun
provincial capital
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 省会。
    shěng huì Shì yí gè shěng de zhèng zhì zhōng xīn.
    A provincial capital is the political center of a province.
  • 省会？
    Nǐ zhī dào sì chuān de shěng huì shì chéng dū ma?
    Do you know that the provincial capital of Sichuan is Chengdu?
  • 省会。
    Tā dà xué bì yè hòu qù le shěng huì gōng zuò.
    After graduating from university, he went to work in the provincial capital.

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.

省shěngprovince
会huìcapital

省 means province and 会 means capital, so 省会 is the capital city of a province.

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.

The upper part of 省 is a changed form of 生, which gave the sound, while the lower 目 is an eye; the picture showed looking closely or inspecting.

Open 省 →

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 會; 会 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
合合héto meet
Sound part声符shēngfú
𡆧
𡆧𡆧會huì
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

Traditional 會 pairs 合 (to meet) with 𡆧, an original form for ironware, to give the sound. The simplified 会 is a later shorthand, so its parts are not the original parts.

Open 会 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 5HSK 2.0 Level 6

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