明信片 (míng xìn piàn) — postcard | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

postcard

Measure word · 张

Examples

明信片。
Wǒ zuó tiān jì le yì zhāng míng xìn piàn gěi péng you.
I sent a postcard to a friend yesterday.
明信片。
Zhè zhāng míng xìn piàn shàng de fēng jǐng hěn piào liang.
The scenery on this postcard is very beautiful.
明信片。
Tā shōu jí le hěn duō lái zì bù tóng guó jiā de míng xìn piàn.
He collected many postcards from different countries.

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.

明信open letter

明míngopen信xìnletter

偏正Modifier + head

The 明 (open), 信 (letter), and 片 (card) together build a postcard.

Characters in this word

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

日月明

日日rìsun
月月yuèmoon

明 combines 日 (sun) and 月 (moon), showing the sun just rising while the moon has not yet set, or two bright objects in the sky, to express brightness.

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

言言yánwords

Sound part声符shēngfú

人

人rén信xìn

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

信 pairs 人 as the sound part with 言 (words) as the meaning part.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Appears in

HSK 2.0 Level 5 Mail & Messaging

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