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公园 (gōng yuán) — park (public recreation area)

Definition

公园 is a public park for recreation — bigger and more public than 园, which is a garden or the bound morpheme in compounds like 动物园. Use 公园 for city parks; use 园 only for smaller gardens or as part of a compound.

noun
park (public recreation area)
Measure word · 个, 座
Easily confused

Examples

  • 公园。
    Wǒ jiā fù jìn yǒu yí gè gōng yuán.
    There is a park near my home.
  • 公园。
    Hái zi men zài gōng yuán lǐ wán dé hěn kāi xīn.
    The children are having a great time playing in the park.
  • 公园。
    Zhè zuò gōng yuán shì qù nián jiàn de.
    This park was built last year.

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.

公gōngpublic
园yuángarden

公园 combines 公, 'public', with 园, 'garden', to mean a public garden.

Characters in this word

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

One theory sees 公 as a picture of a wide-mouthed, round-bottomed jar.

Open 公 →

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
囗囗wéi
Sound part声符shēngfú
元
元yuán园yuán
Same sound today

In 园, 元 sits inside 囗, and 元 gives the sound.

Open 园 →

Grammar

Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 3HSK 2.0 Level 3City & Urban2000 Most Frequent Chinese Words3000 Most Frequent Chinese Words5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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