TongTong
Sign in

大赛 (dà sài) — grand contest, major competition

Definition

大赛 refers specifically to a large-scale, high-profile competition. Compare with 比赛 (any competition or match), and 决赛 (the finals only) or 赛事 (event, often sports).

noun
grand contestmajor competition
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 大赛。
    Zhè cì dà sài xī yǐn le quán guó gè dì de xuǎn shǒu cān jiā.
    This major competition attracted contestants from all over the country.
  • 大赛。
    Tā zài qù nián de dà sài zhōng huò dé le guàn jūn.
    He won the championship in last year's grand contest.
  • 大赛，。
    Wèi le cān jiā zhè ge dà sài, wǒ zhǔn bèi le hǎo jǐ gè yuè.
    I prepared for several months to participate in this grand contest.

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dàgrand
赛sàicontest

The first character means grand and the second means contest; together they refer to a major competition.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 賽; 赛 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
貝貝bèishell
Sound part声符shēngfú
塞
塞sāi賽sài
Same sound today

The traditional form 賽 uses 貝 (shell) for meaning and 塞 for sound. The simplified 赛 is a later shorthand.

Open 赛 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 4Sports & Athletics3000 Most Frequent Chinese Words5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

Browse more HSK 4 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.