汽水 (qì shuǐ) — soda pop, carbonated soft drink | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

soda popcarbonated soft drink

Measure word · 瓶

Examples

汽水。
Wǒ mǎi le yì píng qì shuǐ.
I bought a bottle of soda.
汽水？
Nǐ xiǎng hē qì shuǐ hái shì guǒ zhī?
Do you want to drink soda or juice?
，汽水。
Tiān qì hěn rè, hē yì píng qì shuǐ zhēn shū fu.
The weather is very hot, drinking a bottle of soda is really comfortable.

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.

汽 and 水 combine to mean fizzy water.

Characters in this word

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

氵气汽

Meaning part形符xíngfú

氵Written in full as水shuǐwater

Sound part声符shēngfú

气

Same sound today

The 氵 part is water, and 气 is used for the sound and also means air, so 汽 shows water in an air-like form.

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

水 is a simple drawing of water flowing.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 4 Beverages

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