圣保罗 (Shèng bǎo luó) — São Paulo, city in Brazil; St. Paul (the apostl…

Definition

noun

São Paulocity in BrazilSt. Paul (the apostle or places named after him)

圣保罗。
Wǒ míng nián xiǎng qù Shèng bǎo luó lǚ yóu.
I want to travel to São Paulo next year.
圣保罗。
Shèng bǎo luó Shì bā xī zuì dà de chéng shì.
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil.
圣保罗。
Shèng bǎo luó De tiān qì hěn rè.
The weather in São Paulo is very hot.

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.

圣保罗 spells a foreign name; the characters 圣, 保, and 罗 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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 聖; 圣 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

呈

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

The traditional form 聖 puts 耳 (ear) beside 呈, which gives the sound; the simplified 圣 is a shorthand, and its parts are not the historical parts.

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

保 originally showed a person 人 carrying a child 子 on their back, which led to the sense of protecting.

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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