不赖 (bù lài) — not bad, pretty good | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

adjective

not badpretty good

不赖。
Zhè jiā cān tīng de cài zhēn bù lài.
The food at this restaurant is really not bad.
不赖，。
Tā de zhōng wén shuō dé bù lài, jìn bù hěn kuài.
His Chinese is pretty good; he's improving fast.
不赖，。
Zhè jiàn yī fu de zhì liàng bù lài, jià gé yě hé lǐ.
The quality of this clothing is not bad, and the price is reasonable.

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.

不 says not, and 赖 names badness, so the sense is not bad.

Characters in this word

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

The picture in 不 originally showed a flower’s calyx; the “no” sense came later from a related character, not from this picture.

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 賴; 赖 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

貝貝bèicowry

Sound part声符shēngfú

剌

剌là賴lài

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

The traditional form 賴 uses 貝 (a cowry) for profit and 剌 for the sound; the simplified 赖 is a shorthand.

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