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年青 (nián qīng) — youthful, young

Definition

年青 is a near-synonym of 年轻 but is more literary and less common in modern speech — use it mostly in writing or fixed phrases like 年青有为.

adjective
youthfulyoung

Examples

  • 年青。
    Tā shì yí wèi nián qīng yǒu wèi de yī shēng.
    He is a young and promising doctor.
  • ，年青。
    Suī rán tā nián jì bù xiǎo le, dàn xīn tài hěn nián qīng.
    Although she is not young anymore, she has a very youthful attitude.
  • 年青。
    Zhè ge tuán duì chōng mǎn nián qīng de huó lì.
    This team is full of youthful energy.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

A small sentence frozen into a word: something, and what it does or is.

年niánage
青qīngyoung

The sense is that the 年 is 青, meaning youthful.

Characters in this word

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
禾禾héwheat; grain
Sound part声符shēngfú
人
人rén年nián
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

年 pairs 禾 (grain) with 人, which gives the sound. Its original meaning was harvest, and it later came to mean a year.

Open 年 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

An early form of 青 combined 生 and 井, both used for sound; the modern form has changed.

Open 青 →
Appears in
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