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大家 (dà jiā) — everyone

Definition

大家 (dàjia) is the everyday "everyone" — used in greetings ("大家 好!") and general statements. More casual than 各位, which addresses a group politely, and much more common than 诸位 or 众人.

pronoun
everyone
Easily confused

Examples

  • 大家。
    dà jiā Dōu lái le.
    Everyone has come.
  • 大家！
    dà jiā Hǎo!
    Hello everyone!
  • 大家。
    Xiè xie dà jiā.
    Thank you everyone.

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.

大dàgreat
家jiāfamily

大 as great/whole modifies 家 as family, so the word extends from the whole household to everyone.

Characters in this word

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

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

Open 大 →

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
宀宀miánroof
Sound part声符shēngfú
𢑓
𢑓𢑓家jiā
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The early drawing of 家 showed a roof 宀 over a male-pig sign 𢑓 that gave the pronunciation; the lower part later changed shape.

Open 家 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 1500 Most Frequent Chinese WordsHSK 2.0 Level 21000 Most Frequent Chinese WordsPeople (General)2000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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