插秧 (chā yāng) — to transplant rice seedlings (in paddy farming)

Definition

插秧 means transplanting young rice seedlings into a flooded paddy — a specific step in rice farming, not planting seeds. The verb is separable: 插秧 → 插…秧 (e.g. 插一亩秧).

verb
to transplant rice seedlings (in paddy farming)

Examples

  • 插秧。
    Měi nián chūn tiān nóng mín dōu yào chā yāng.
    Every spring, farmers need to transplant rice seedlings.
  • 秧。
    Tā men jīn tiān yǐ jīng chā le yì mǔ yāng.
    They have already transplanted seedlings on one mu of land today.
  • 秧。
    Chā wán yāng zhī hòu hái yào jiāo shuǐ shī féi.
    After transplanting the seedlings, you still need to water and fertilize.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

插chāinsert
秧yāngrice seedling

插 means to insert, and 秧 refers to rice seedlings, so together they mean transplant rice seedlings.

Characters in this word

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 插 →

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hégrain; cereal
Sound part声符shēngfú
央
央yāng秧yāng
Same sound today

The left part 禾 is a grain plant, and the right part 央 supplies the pronunciation.

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