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拖车 (tuō chē) — (noun) tow truck; (noun) trailer, flatbed trailer, or hand-pulled cart

Definition

A vehicle used to pull or carry another — a tow truck for broken-down cars, or a trailer/flatbed pulled behind one. Note: 拖车 is the thing being pulled or doing the pulling; 拖 (tuō) alone just means 'to pull'.

noun
tow trucktrailerflatbed traileror hand-pulled cart
Measure word · 辆

Examples

  • 拖车。
    Lù shang yǒu yí liàng tuō chē zài bāng huài diào de chē.
    There is a tow truck on the road helping a broken-down car.
  • 拖车。
    Nà liàng kǎ chē hòu miàn tuō zhe yí liàng tuō chē.
    That truck is pulling a trailer behind it.
  • 拖车。
    Tā lā zhe yí liàng tuō chē qù mǎi cài.
    He pulls a hand cart to go buy groceries.

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.

拖tuōtow
车chēvehicle

拖 means to pull or tow and 车 means vehicle, so the word means a vehicle for towing or being towed.

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
手手shǒu
Sound part声符shēngfú
它
它tā拖tuō
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

拖 uses 手 to show an action done with the hand, and 它 to give its sound.

Open 拖 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 車; 车 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 車 was drawn as a carriage seen from above, with wheels on both sides and a shaft at the front; the simplified 车 is a later shorthand.

Open 车 →
Appears in
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