迎面 (yíng miàn) — directly from the front; head-on; in one's face | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

Adverb meaning 'head-on, directly at one's face' — used for wind, people, vehicles approaching the speaker. Compared to 当面 (face-to-face with a person), 迎面 is about physical approach, not a personal encounter.

adverb

directly from the fronthead-onin one's face

Examples

迎面。
yíng miàn Zǒu lái yí gè rén.
A person came walking directly towards me.
迎面。
yíng miàn Chuī lái yí zhèn rè fēng.
A gust of hot wind blew directly into my face.
迎面。
Liǎng liàng chē yíng miàn xiāng zhuàng.
Two cars collided head-on.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

迎 (to meet) and 面 (face) combine to mean straight toward someone's face.

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.

辶卬迎

Meaning part形符xíngfú

辶Written in full as辵chuò

Sound part声符shēngfú

卬

卬áng迎yíng

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

迎 is made of 辶 (written fully as 辵) for the meaning and 卬 for 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 7-9 HSK 2.0 Level 6 Directions

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