剑桥 (Jiàn qiáo) — Cambridge (the city in England or the universit…

Definition

Proper noun referring to Cambridge — the historic English city or its famous university. It is a set place name, not a descriptive word.

noun

Cambridge (the city in England or the university)

剑桥。
Wǒ jiě jie zài Jiàn qiáo dà xué dú shū.
My sister is studying at Cambridge University.
剑桥。
Jiàn qiáo Shì yīng guó yí zuò lì shǐ yōu jiǔ de chéng shì.
Cambridge is an ancient city in England.
剑桥。
Tā ná dào le Jiàn qiáo de lù qǔ tōng zhī shū.
He received an admission letter from Cambridge.

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

剑桥 spells the foreign name Cambridge; 剑 and 桥 carry no independent meaning here.

Sound-only characters

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 劍; 剑 is its simplified writing.

僉刂劍

Meaning part形符xíngfú

刂Written in full as刀dāo

Sound part声符shēngfú

僉

僉qiān劍jiàn

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 劍 pairs 僉 as the sound part with 刂, a knife sign written as 刀, as the meaning part; the simplified 剑 is a later shorthand.

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 橋; 桥 is its simplified writing.

木喬橋

Meaning part形符xíngfú

木木mùwood

Sound part声符shēngfú

喬

喬qiáo橋qiáo

Same sound today

The traditional form 橋 pairs 木 (wood) with 喬 (qiáo), which gave the character its sound; the simplified 桥 is a later abbreviation.

Appears in