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寒假 (hán jià) — winter vacation, winter break

Definition

寒假 is the school-break sense of 'winter vacation', paired with 暑假 for the two main school holidays. 假期 is the general word for any vacation or holiday period.

noun
winter vacationwinter break

Examples

  • 寒假？
    Zhè ge hán jià nǐ dǎ suàn zuò shén me?
    What do you plan to do this winter vacation?
  • 寒假。
    hán jià Yí gòng yǒu èr shí tiān.
    The winter break is twenty days in total.
  • 寒假。
    Wǒ hán jià xiǎng qù nán fāng lǚ xíng.
    I want to travel to the south during winter vacation.

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.

寒háncold
假jiǎvacation

寒 means cold and 假 means vacation, giving winter vacation.

Characters in this word

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

  • 宀宀miánhouse
  • 人人rénperson
  • 茻茻mǎnggrass

寒 shows 宀 (house), 人 (person), and 茻 (grass): a person sleeping in grass inside a house to keep out the cold.

Open 寒 →

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
亻Written in full as人rénperson
Sound part声符shēngfú
叚
叚jiǎ假jiǎ
Same sound today

假 pairs 亻 (person) with 叚, which gives the sound jiǎ.

Open 假 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 4HSK 2.0 Level 4

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