南特 (Nán tè) — Nantes (city in France)

Definition

noun

Nantes (city in France)

南特。
Nán tè Shì fǎ guó xī bù de yí gè měi lì chéng shì.
Nantes is a beautiful city in western France.
南特。
Měi nián yǒu hěn duō yóu kè qù Nán tè lǚ yóu.
Every year many tourists travel to Nantes.
南特。
Tā zài Nán tè dà xué xué xí fǎ yǔ.
He studies French at Nantes University.

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.

南特 spells the foreign city name; the characters are phonetic and carry no meaning of their own here.

Sound-only characters

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

牛寺特

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

寺

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

The shape combines 牛 (ox) with 寺, which gives the pronunciation; it originally meant a large bull.