供水 (gōng shuǐ) — to supply water; water supply (as a utility)

Definition

As a verb phrase, 供水 means to supply water (供 the action, 水 the thing). As a noun, it means the water supply — the system or service that delivers water to a city or building.

verb
to supply waterwater supply (as a utility)

Examples

  • 供水
    Zhè ge chéng shì de gōng shuǐ xì tǒng fēi cháng wán shàn.
    This city's water supply system is very well-developed.
  • Tíng shuǐ yì tiān hòu, zhōng yú gòng le shuǐ.
    After a one-day water outage, water was finally supplied.
  • Jīn nián xià tiān gòng le sān cì shuǐ, hái shì bú gòu yòng.
    Water was supplied three times this summer, but it still wasn't enough.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

gòngsupply

“供” means supply and “水” means water, so the action is supplying water.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
Written in full asrénperson
Sound part声符shēngfú
gònggòng
Same sound today

供 is made of 亻, a person, and 共, which gives the sound gòng.

Open 供 →

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

水 is a simple drawing of water flowing.

Open 水 →

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