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易燃 (yì rán) — inflammable

Definition

易燃 (yìrán) is a two-character modifier meaning 'easily inflammable' — it describes substances like gases or liquids that catch fire readily. It functions as an attribute before nouns (易燃物品) and is the standard term on safety labels.

verb
inflammable

Examples

  • 易燃。
    Zhè ge jiā yóu zhàn fù jìn bù néng yǒu yì rán de dōng xī.
    There cannot be inflammable things near this gas station.
  • 易燃。
    Wǒ men yào xiǎo xīn yì rán de qì tǐ.
    We need to be careful with inflammable gases.
  • 易燃，。
    Zhè zhǒng yè tǐ fēi cháng yì rán, bù néng kào jìn huǒ.
    This liquid is very inflammable and cannot be near fire.

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.

易yìeasy
燃ránburn

易 means easy, and 燃 means burn, so it catches fire easily.

Characters in this word

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

The early form of 易 was a drawing of a filled container, not a chameleon. It showed something full that could be given out.

Open 易 →

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
火火huǒfire
Sound part声符shēngfú
然
然rán燃rán
Same sound today

燃 adds 火 (fire) to 然 to write “burn”; 然 supplied the sound, and 火 was added to make the fire meaning clear.

Open 燃 →
Appears in
Safety & Danger

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