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女生 (nǚ shēng) — female student; girl

Definition

Mainly 'female student' in a school context, also used for 'girl' in everyday speech. More specifically about a school setting than 女孩儿, which is the everyday word for 'girl'.

noun
female studentgirl
Measure word · 个
Easily confused

Examples

  • 女生。
    Wǒ men bān yǒu èr shí gè nǚ shēng.
    Our class has twenty female students.
  • 女生。
    Nà ge nǚ shēng shì wǒ de mèi mei.
    That girl is my younger sister.
  • 女生。
    nǚ shēng Men dōu zài jiào shì lǐ kàn shū.
    The girls are all reading in the classroom.

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.

女nǚfemale
生shēngstudent

女 gives female and 生 gives student, yielding a female student or girl.

Characters in this word

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

女 shows a woman with folded arms, kneeling or standing. In the modern form the figure faces right, and the small enclosed part is what is left of one arm.

Open 女 →

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

生 shows 屮 (a bud) above 一 (the ground), drawing a sprout coming up from the earth.

Open 生 →
Appears in
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