块 (kuài) — (classifier) for pieces or chunks of something (e.g., bread, meat, watermelon); (colloquial) for money, equivalent to 元 (yuan)
Definition
块 (kuài) is a common measure word for chunky pieces of food and things (一块面包, 一块西瓜). It's also the casual spoken word for 'yuan' — 一块钱 = one yuan.
classifier
for pieces or chunks of something (e.g., bread, meat, watermelon)(colloquial) for moneyequivalent to 元 (yuan)
Easily confused
Examples
- 。Wǒ chī le yí kuài miàn bāo.I ate a piece of bread.
- 。Qǐng gěi wǒ yí kuài xī guā.Please give me a piece of watermelon.
- 块。Zhè běn shū wǔ kuài qián.This book is five yuan.
Origin
Sound + meaning六书liùshū
形声xíngshēngMost 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 塊; 块 is its simplified writing.
The traditional form 塊 pairs 土 (earth; dust) with 鬼 as a sound part to show a clod of dirt. The simplified 块 is a later shorthand, so its parts are not the historical pieces.
Grammar
Appears in
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