赫尔辛基 (Hè ěr xīn jī) — Helsinki, capital of Finland

Definition

noun

Helsinkicapital of Finland

Examples

赫尔辛基。
Wǒ míng nián xiǎng qù Hè ěr xīn jī lǚ xíng.
I want to travel to Helsinki next year.
赫尔辛基。
Hè ěr xīn jī Shì fēn lán zuì dà de chéng shì.
Helsinki is the largest city in Finland.
赫尔辛基。
Tā zài Hè ěr xīn jī de yì suǒ dà xué gōng zuò.
He works at a university in Helsinki.

Origin

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

The characters carry no meaning of their own here; together they spell the foreign name Helsinki.

Sound-only characters

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

赫 is made from two copies of the same part, and that part also gives its sound.

Open 赫 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 爾; 尔 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 爾, simplified as 尔, originally drew cloth on a loom with crossing threads. It was borrowed for its sound to write “you,” so the picture is unrelated to that meaning.

Open 尔 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The oldest forms of 辛 drew a newly grown tree shoot. The shape was later also read as a sharp marking tool, but that reading may come from confusing it with another character.

Open 辛 →

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

其土基

Meaning part形符xíngfú

土土tǔearth

Sound part声符shēngfú

其

其qí基jī

Same sound today

The lower 土 means earth, and the upper 其 gives the sound; together they form the idea of a foundation of earth.

Open 基 →

Appears in