哈罗 (hā luó) — hello (loanword) | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

hello (loanword)

哈罗，！
hā luó, Nǐ hǎo!
Hello, how are you!
哈罗。
Tā jìn mén shí shuō le yī shēng hā luó.
He said hello when he entered the door.
哈罗，？
hā luó, Qǐng wèn nǐ shì wáng xiān sheng ma?
Hello, may I ask if you are Mr. Wang?

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.

哈罗 spells hello; the characters carry no meaning of their own 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.

口合哈

Meaning part形符xíngfú

口口kǒumouth

Sound part声符shēngfú

合

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

哈 uses 口 (mouth) to show a mouth-related idea, and 合 as a sound part. The shape of 合 may look like two open mouths, but that is likely by chance.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 羅; 罗 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 羅 combines 网 (net) with 維 (a bird tied with string) to show a net for catching birds; the simplified 罗 is a later abbreviation.

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