躲雨 (duǒ yǔ) — to take shelter from the rain

Definition

A verb-object phrase (离合词) meaning 'take shelter from the rain.' 躲 is the action; insert other elements between the two characters when using aspect or duration, as in 躲了一个小时的雨.

verb
to take shelter from the rain

Examples

  • ，躲雨。
    Xià yǔ le, wǒ men kuài qù duǒ yǔ.
    It's raining, let's quickly take shelter.
  • 。
    Tā men zài qiáo xià duǒ le yí gè xiǎo shí de yǔ.
    They took shelter under the bridge for an hour.
  • 躲雨，。
    duǒ yǔ De shí hou, wǒ kàn le kàn shǒu jī.
    While taking shelter from the rain, I glanced at my phone.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

躲duǒavoid
雨yǔrain

躲 means to avoid and 雨 is rain, so the action is avoiding rain.

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
身身shēnbody
Sound part声符shēngfú
朵
朵duǒ躲duǒ
Same sound today

躲 uses 身 to show a body and 朵 to give the sound; 朵 is also noted as "to move".

Open 躲 →

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

The shape 雨 is an old picture of a cloud with rain drops falling from it; the top line was added later.

Open 雨 →

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