山城 (shān chéng) — mountain city

Definition

noun
mountain city
Measure word · 座

Examples

  • 山城。
    Chóng qìng shì yí zuò měi lì de shān chéng.
    Chongqing is a beautiful mountain city.
  • 山城，。
    Zhè zuò shān chéng yǒu shān yǒu shuǐ, fēi cháng piào liang.
    This mountain city has mountains and water, it's very beautiful.
  • 山城。
    shān chéng De yè jǐng fēi cháng yǒu míng.
    The night view of the mountain city is very famous.

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.

山shānmountain
城chéngcity

山 means mountain and 城 means city, so the word names a city among mountains.

Characters in this word

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

山 shows three mountain peaks side by side.

Open 山 →

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
土土tǔsoil
Sound part声符shēngfú
成
成chéng城chéng
Same sound today

城 pairs 土 (soil) with 成 as a sound part, because city walls were originally made of stamped earth.

Open 城 →

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