草原 (cǎo yuán) — grassland; prairie | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

A vast, natural grassland — the open prairie found in places like Inner Mongolia, bigger and wilder than a 草地 (a lawn or small meadow). 平原 is flat land of any kind, not necessarily grassy.

noun

grasslandprairie

Measure word · 片

Examples

草原。
Zhè piàn cǎo yuán fēi cháng liáo kuò.
This grassland is very vast.
草原。
cǎo yuán Shàng de niú yáng zài chī cǎo.
The cattle and sheep on the prairie are grazing.
草原。
Wǒ men kāi chē chuān guò le dà cǎo yuán.
We drove through the great grassland.

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.

草 points to grass and 原 to a plain, giving a grassy plain.

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.

艹早草

Meaning part形符xíngfú

艹Written in full as艸cǎograss; plant

Sound part声符shēngfú

早

早zǎo草cǎo

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

草 pairs 艹 (grass; plant) with 早, which gives the sound. The form originally referred to another word and was later used for the grass sense.

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

泉泉quánspring
厂厂chǎngcliff

原 combines 泉 (spring) and 厂 (cliff), picturing a spring bursting from a cliff-side, which gives the sense of origin or source.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 6 Geography & Landforms

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