全家人 (quán jiā rén) — the whole family; all family members

Definition

noun

the whole familyall family members

全家人。
quán jiā rén Měi nián chūn jié dōu huì jù zài yì qǐ chī nián yè fàn.
The whole family gets together for the New Year's Eve dinner every Spring Festival.
全家人。
quán jiā rén Duì zhè cì lǚ xíng chōng mǎn le qī dài.
The whole family is full of anticipation for this trip.
全家人。
quán jiā rén Jué dìng zhōu mò yì qǐ qù pá shān.
The whole family decided to go hiking together this weekend.

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.

全家

偏正Modifier + head

全 means whole, 家 means family, and 人 means people, naming all the people in a family.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

The shape puts 入 together with 玉 to show a whole piece of jade, so it means complete or whole.

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

宀宀miánroof

Sound part声符shēngfú

𢑓

𢑓𢑓家jiā

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

The early drawing of 家 showed a roof 宀 over a male-pig sign 𢑓 that gave the pronunciation; the lower part later changed shape.

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

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

Appears in