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普通话 (pǔ tōng huà) — Mandarin, Putonghua (the standard spoken Chinese)

Definition

noun
MandarinPutonghua (the standard spoken Chinese)

Examples

  • 普通话。
    Wǒ zhèng zài xué pǔ tōng huà.
    I am learning Mandarin.
  • 普通话。
    Nǐ de pǔ tōng huà shuō dé hěn hǎo.
    You speak Mandarin very well.
  • 普通话。
    Tā jiǎng pǔ tōng huà hěn biāo zhǔn.
    He speaks Mandarin very standardly.

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common
普pǔgeneral通tōngcommon
联合Coordinate
话huàspeech

‘普通’ means common and ‘话’ means speech, together naming the standard common speech.

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 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 話; 话 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
言言yánword
Sound part声符shēngfú
𠯑
𠯑𠯑話huà
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

In the traditional form 話, 言 relates to words and 𠯑 gives the sound; the simplified 话 is a shorthand, so its right side is not that sound part.

Open 话 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 4HSK 2.0 Level 3Language

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