本队 (běn duì) — (noun) our team; this unit (referring to the group the speaker belongs to)

Definition

noun
our teamthis unit (referring to the group the speaker belongs to)

Examples

  • 本队。
    běn duì Zài zhè cì bǐ sài zhōng biǎo xiàn dé hěn hǎo.
    Our team performed very well in this competition.
  • 本队。
    Míng tiān běn duì yào zhào kāi yí cì jǐn jí huì yì.
    Our unit will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow.
  • 本队。
    běn duì Yǒu sān wèi duì yuán huò dé le biǎo zhāng.
    Three members of our team received commendations.

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.

本běnthis
队duìteam

本 means this or our, and 队 means team, so the whole word points to the speaker's own team.

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

本 adds a stroke at the bottom of a tree shape to mark the roots, giving the sense of foundation or original.

Open 本 →

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 隊; 队 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
阜阜fù
Sound part声符shēngfú
㒸
㒸㒸隊duì
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 隊 has 阜 as the meaning part and 㒸 as the sound part.

Open 队 →

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