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汽车 (qì chē) — car; automobile

Definition

汽车 is the standard word for a personal car. 车 is the everyday shorthand — say 我坐车去 but 我买了一辆汽车. 轿车 (HSK 7) is more formal for sedan.

noun
carautomobile
Measure word · 辆

Examples

  • 汽车。
    Wǒ mǎi le yí liàng xīn qì chē.
    I bought a new car.
  • 汽车。
    Tā měi tiān kāi qì chē qù shàng bān.
    He drives to work every day.
  • 汽车。
    Zhè liàng qì chē hěn dà.
    This car is very big.

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qìsteam
车chēvehicle

汽车 pairs 汽, steam, with 车, vehicle; today it denotes a motor vehicle.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
氵Written in full as水shuǐwater
Sound part声符shēngfú
气
气qì汽
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.

Open 汽 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 車; 车 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 車 was drawn as a carriage seen from above, with wheels on both sides and a shaft at the front; the simplified 车 is a later shorthand.

Open 车 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 3Vehicles2000 Most Frequent Chinese Words3000 Most Frequent Chinese Words5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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