鱼群 (yú qún) — school of fish, shoal of fish

Definition

noun
school of fishshoal of fish
Measure word · 群

Examples

  • 鱼群。
    Qián shuǐ yuán kàn dào le yí dà qún yú qún.
    The diver saw a large school of fish.
  • 鱼群。
    yú qún Zài shān hú jiāo zhōu wéi yóu lái yóu qù.
    The school of fish swam around the coral reef.
  • 鱼群。
    Yú mín gēn jù yú qún de dòng xiàng pàn duàn bǔ yú dì diǎn.
    Fishermen judge fishing spots based on the movement of the fish school.

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.

鱼yúfish
群qúngroup

鱼 and 群 together mean a group of fish.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 魚; 鱼 is its simplified writing.

For 鱼, the traditional form 魚 is a picture of a fish.

Open 鱼 →

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
羊羊yáng
Sound part声符shēngfú
君
君jūn群
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

群 pairs 羊, a sheep, to point to a herd or group, with 君 giving the sound.

Open 群 →

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