TongTong
Sign in

土豆 (tǔ dòu) — potato; (in Taiwan) peanut

Definition

Standard Mainland word for 'potato' — literally 'earth bean'. In Taiwan this same word means 'peanut' (花生 on the mainland), so context disambiguates. Pair with 红薯 (sweet potato) for starchy roots.

noun
potato(in Taiwan) peanut
Measure word · 个, 颗

Examples

  • 土豆。
    Wǒ men zuò tǔ dòu tāng ba.
    Let's make potato soup.
  • 土豆。
    Zhè xiē tǔ dòu shì cóng cài shì chǎng mǎi de.
    These potatoes were bought from the vegetable market.
  • 土豆。
    Tā xǐ le liǎng gè tǔ dòu.
    He washed two potatoes.

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.

土tǔearth
豆dòubean

土 refers to earth and 豆 to bean, so the word pictures a potato as an earth bean.

Characters in this word

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 土 →

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

豆 originally drew some kind of container. It was borrowed for its sound to write the plant name, so the picture and the meaning are unrelated.

Open 豆 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 5HSK 2.0 Level 5Vegetables5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

Browse more HSK 5 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.