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普通人 (pǔ tōng rén) — ordinary person, average person

Definition

noun
ordinary personaverage person
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 普通人，。
    Zuò wéi yí gè pǔ tōng rén, tā guò zhe jiǎn dān de shēng huó.
    As an ordinary person, he leads a simple life.
  • 普通人。
    Hěn duō pǔ tōng rén dōu xī wàng yǒu jī huì qù lǚ xíng.
    Many ordinary people hope to have a chance to travel.
  • 普通人。
    Zhè wèi míng xīng kàn qǐ lái jiù xiàng yí gè pǔ tōng rén.
    This celebrity looks just like an ordinary person.

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.

普通ordinary
普pǔgeneral通tōngcommon
联合Coordinate
人rénperson

普通人 joins 普通 (ordinary) and 人 (person) to mean an average person.

Characters in this word

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

  • 並並bìngside by side
  • 日日rìsun

普 is made of 日 (sun) and 並 (side by side).

Open 普 →

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
辶Written in full as辵chuò
Sound part声符shēngfú
甬
甬yǒng通tōng
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

通 pairs 辶, a part associated with movement, with 甬, which gives the sound.

Open 通 →

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

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

Open 人 →
Appears in
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