建校 (jiàn jiào) — to found a school; to establish a school

Definition

建校 means 'to found/establish a school,' used for the act of creating the institution itself. Note it's a verb-object phrase: the object is 校 (school), not 课.

verb
to found a schoolto establish a school

Examples

  • 建校。
    Zhè suǒ zhōng xué de jiàn jiào yí shì zài jiǔ yuè jǔ xíng.
    The founding ceremony of this middle school was held in September.
  • 建校。
    Míng nián shì zhè ge dà xué de jiàn jiào yì bǎi zhōu nián.
    Next year is the 100th anniversary of the founding of this university.
  • 建校，。
    Zhèng fǔ chū zī jiàn jiào, jiě jué le dāng dì hái zi shàng xué nán de wèn tí.
    The government funded the founding of a school, solving the local children's difficulty in attending school.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

建jiànestablish
校xiàoschool

Establishing combines with school to express founding a school.

Characters in this word

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

  • 廴廴yǐn
  • 聿聿yù

The shape 建 shows 廴 and 聿, but it comes from an older drawing of a hand planting a pole into a base; the lower part of 聿 is not a brush.

Open 建 →

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
木木mùtree
Sound part声符shēngfú
交
交jiāo校jiào
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

校 is built from 木 (tree) on the left and 交 on the right, which supplies the sound.

Open 校 →

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