语 (yǔ) — (bound form) language; speech; (in literary Chinese) to say; to tell
Definition
语 (yǔ) is a bound form meaning 'language' or 'speech' — it almost never stands alone, but appears in common compounds like 汉语, 英语, 语文, 成语. The literary sense 'to say' survives in set phrases such as 沉默不语.
bound form
(bound form) languagespeech(in literary Chinese) to sayto tell
Examples
- ？Nǐ zài xué hàn yǔ ma?Are you learning Chinese?
- 。Zhè ge chéng yǔ hěn yǒu yì si.This idiom is very interesting.
- ，语。Tā tīng le zhī hòu, chén mò bù yǔ.After hearing it, he was silent.
Appears in
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