葡萄牙语 (pú táo yá yǔ) — Portuguese (language)

Definition

noun

Portuguese (language)

Examples

葡萄牙语。
Tā zài bā xī xué huì le liú lì de pú táo yá yǔ.
He learned fluent Portuguese in Brazil.
葡萄牙语。
pú táo yá yǔ Shì pú tao yá hé bā xī de guān fāng yǔ yán.
Portuguese is the official language of Portugal and Brazil.
葡萄牙语。
Wǒ dǎ suàn míng nián qù xué xí pú táo yá yǔ.
I plan to study Portuguese next year.

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.

葡萄牙Portugal

葡pú萄táo牙yá

音译Transliteration

语yǔlanguage

葡萄牙 spells Portugal and 语 means language; together they name the Portuguese language.

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

艸艸cǎograss

Sound part声符shēngfú

匍

匍pú葡

Same sound today

葡 is built from 艸 (grass) plus 匍 as the sound part. For the grape meaning, the old explanation also links it to a sprout growing in a field, so the shape points to plants.

Open 葡 →

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

艹匋萄

Meaning part形符xíngfú

艹Written in full as艸cǎo

Sound part声符shēngfú

匋

匋táo萄

Same sound today

The top 艹 marks 萄 as a plant, and 匋 gives its sound. The part 匋 also points to making an earthenware jar, possibly for a plant used to make wine.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 牙 →