路面 (lù miàn) — road surface; pavement | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

路面 is the paved surface of a road itself — the material you drive or walk on. 路上 means 'on the road / en route'; 地面 is the ground or a room's floor, not road surface.

noun

road surfacepavement

Measure word · 种

Examples

路面。
Zhè tiáo lù de lù miàn hěn píng.
The surface of this road is very flat.
路面。
Xià yǔ de shí hou lù miàn hěn shī.
When it rains, the road surface is very wet.
。
Gōng rén zhèng zài xiū lù miàn.
Workers are repairing the road surface.

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.

面miànsurface

Road and surface combine to mean the top of a road.

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

Sound part声符shēngfú

各

各gè路lù

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

路 combines 足, a foot, with 各, which supplies the sound.

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

面 originally drew a man’s face, with one eye exaggerated; the horizontal stroke was added later.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 6 Roads & Traffic

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