TongTong
Sign in

圣彼得堡 (Shèng Bǐ dé bǎo) — Saint Petersburg (city in Russia)

Definition

noun
Saint Petersburg (city in Russia)

Examples

  • 圣彼得堡。
    Qù nián xià tiān wǒ qù le yí tàng Shèng Bǐ dé bǎo.
    I took a trip to Saint Petersburg last summer.
  • 圣彼得堡。
    Shèng Bǐ dé bǎo Shì é luó sī dì èr dà chéng shì.
    Saint Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia.
  • 圣彼得堡。
    Tā dǎ suàn míng nián qù Shèng Bǐ dé bǎo xué xí yì shù.
    He plans to go to Saint Petersburg next year to study art.

Origin

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shèng
彼bǐ
得dé
堡bǎo

The characters spell the foreign place name Saint Petersburg; they do not contribute separate meanings.

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
耳耳ěrear
Sound part声符shēngfú
呈
呈chéng聖shèng
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.

Open 圣 →

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

Meaning part形符xíngfú
彳彳chì
Sound part声符shēngfú
皮
皮pí彼bǐ
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The left part 彳 points to the meaning, and the right part 皮 gives the sound.

Open 彼 →

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

The old form 㝵 showed a hand picking up a cowry, meaning to obtain; later changes turned that picture into 得.

Open 得 →

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

Meaning part形符xíngfú
土土tǔ
Sound part声符shēngfú
保
保bǎo堡bǔ
Same sound today

堡 pairs 土 (earth) with 保 (bǎo): 保 gives the sound, and 土 is the meaning part.

Open 堡 →
Appears in
City & Urban

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.