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轿车 (jiào chē) — car, sedan

Definition

A sedan / passenger car, narrower than 汽车 (any motor vehicle) and everyday 车. Use 辆 as the measure word (not 部 for this sense).

noun
carsedan
Measure word · 部, 辆

Examples

  • 轿车。
    Tā kāi jiào chē qù jī chǎng le.
    He drove the car to the airport.
  • 轿车。
    Wǒ xiǎng mǎi yí liàng xīn jiào chē.
    I want to buy a new car.
  • 轿车。
    Zhè liàng jiào chē shì hēi sè de.
    This car is black.

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.

轿jiàosedan
车chēvehicle

轿 and 车 combine as a sedan-type vehicle, giving the meaning of a car.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 轎; 轿 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
車車jū
Sound part声符shēngfú
喬
喬qiáo轎jiào
Same sound today

The traditional form 轎 has 車, a vehicle, and 喬, which gives the sound; the simplified 轿 is a later shorthand.

Open 轿 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 車; 车 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 車 was drawn as a carriage seen from above, with wheels on both sides and a shaft at the front; the simplified 车 is a later shorthand.

Open 车 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Vehicles5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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