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足球 (zú qiú) — (noun) soccer, football (the sport); (noun) soccer ball, football (the ball)

Definition

The sport of soccer (and the ball itself) — count with 个. 球 is the general word for any ball or ball game; 足球 names this specific sport.

noun
soccerfootball (the sport)soccer ballfootball (the ball)
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 足球。
    Wǒ men yì qǐ qù tī zú qiú ba.
    Let's go play soccer together.
  • 足球？
    Zhè ge zú qiú shì shuí de?
    Whose soccer ball is this?
  • 足球。
    Wǒ jué de tī zú qiú hěn yǒu yì si.
    I think playing soccer is a lot of fun.

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.

足zúfoot
球qiúball

足 means foot and 球 means ball, so the word names the ball kicked in football.

Characters in this word

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

足 was originally drawn as a leg.

Open 足 →

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
玉玉yùjade
Sound part声符shēngfú
求
求qiú球qiú
Same sound today

球 is built from 玉, meaning jade, and 求, which gives the sound.

Open 球 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 2Ball Games5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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