心碎 (xīn suì) — heartbroken; to have one's heart broken

Definition

verb

heartbrokento have one's heart broken

心碎。
Tā yīn shī qù ài ren ér xīn suì.
He was heartbroken from losing his beloved.
心碎。
Nà cì shī bài ràng tā gǎn dào xīn suì.
That failure made her feel heartbroken.
，。
Kàn dào tā shī wàng de yǎn shén, wǒ de xīn dōu suì le.
Seeing his disappointed look, my heart was broken.

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

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

碎suìshattered

心 gives heart and 碎 gives shattered, together picturing a heart broken.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 心 comes from a drawing of a heart, now highly stylized.

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

石卒碎

Meaning part形符xíngfú

石石shístone

Sound part声符shēngfú

卒

卒zú碎suì

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

碎 pairs 石 (stone) with 卒, which gives the sound; the stone part is tied to the sense of breaking or smashing.

Appears in