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大篷车 (dà péng chē) — large covered truck, box van, or caravan

Definition

A covered vehicle for transporting goods or living on the road — a box van, delivery truck, or motorhome. Unlike a regular 卡车, it has an enclosed cargo or living area.

noun
large covered truckbox vanor caravan
Measure word · 辆

Examples

  • 大篷车。
    Tā men yòng yí liàng dà péng chē yùn sòng huò wù dào xiāng xia.
    They used a covered truck to transport goods to the countryside.
  • 大篷车，。
    Nà liàng dà péng chē zhuāng mǎn le jiā jù, zhèng zài bān jiā.
    That covered truck is full of furniture and is moving house.
  • 大篷车，。
    Zhè liàng dà péng chē kě yǐ shuì sì gè rén, shì hé cháng tú lǚ xíng.
    This covered truck can sleep four people, making it suitable for long trips.

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dàbig
篷车covered vehicle
篷péngcover车chēvehicle
偏正Modifier + head

大 marks it as large, 篷 as a cover, and 车 as a vehicle.

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
竹竹zhúbamboo
Sound part声符shēngfú
逢
逢féng篷péng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

篷 pairs 竹 (bamboo) with 逢. The 竹 part connects the meaning to bamboo, and 逢 gives the sound.

Open 篷 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 車; 车 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 車 was drawn as a carriage seen from above, with wheels on both sides and a shaft at the front; the simplified 车 is a later shorthand.

Open 车 →
Appears in
Vehicles

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