二十秒 (èr shí miǎo) — twenty seconds

Definition

noun
twenty seconds
Easily confused

Examples

  • 二十秒。
    Tā pǎo le èr shí miǎo.
    He ran for twenty seconds.
  • 二十秒。
    Bǐ sài zhǐ yòng le èr shí miǎo jiù jié shù le.
    The match ended in just twenty seconds.
  • 二十秒。
    Nǐ kě yǐ zài èr shí miǎo nèi wán chéng zhè ge dòng zuò.
    You can complete this movement within twenty seconds.

Origin

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

二 is drawn as two parallel strokes, where the number of strokes shows the amount.

Open 二 →

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

The early shape 十 was mostly a single vertical stroke, sometimes with a dot, and later gained a horizontal stroke to form a cross. For the number ten, it marked the next digit above one.

Open 十 →

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
禾禾hécereal; grain
Sound part声符shēngfú
少
少shǎo秒miǎo
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The form 秒 pairs 禾, a cereal or grain plant, with 少 giving the sound.

Open 秒 →
Appears in
Time of Day

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