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汉堡 (Hàn bǎo) — Hamburg (city in Germany); hamburger (short for 汉堡包)

Definition

Short for 汉堡包 (hamburger) in everyday use; the full city name of Hamburg in Germany is less common in this form. Pronounced Hàn bǎo, not the German "Hamburg."

noun
Hamburg (city in Germany)hamburger (short for 汉堡包)
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 汉堡。
    Xià ge yuè wǒ dǎ suàn qù Hàn bǎo lǚ xíng.
    Next month I plan to travel to Hamburg.
  • 汉堡。
    Zhōng wǔ wǒ chī le yí gè Hàn bǎo.
    I ate a hamburger for lunch.
  • 汉堡。
    Zhè jiā diàn de Hàn bǎo hěn hǎo chī.
    The hamburgers at this place are very tasty.

Origin

Single-morpheme word
构词法gòucífǎ
音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

汉hàn
堡bǎo

The characters carry no meaning of their own here; 汉堡 spells Hamburg and can mean a hamburger.

Sound-only characters

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 汉 →

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
土土tǔ
Sound part声符shēngfú
保
保bǎo堡bǔ
Same sound today

堡 pairs 土 (earth) with 保 (bǎo): 保 gives the sound, and 土 is the meaning part.

Open 堡 →
Appears in
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