TongTong
Sign in

炸鸡 (zhà jī) — to fry chicken

Definition

A verb-object phrase meaning 'to fry chicken' (the cooking action, not the dish). 炸 takes a direct object and can be split with a measure word: 炸了一只鸡.

verb
to fry chicken

Examples

  • 炸鸡。
    Mā ma zài chú fáng lǐ zhà jī.
    Mom is frying chicken in the kitchen.
  • 。
    Tā zhà le yì zhī jī qǐng kè.
    He fried a chicken to treat his friends.
  • 炸鸡。
    Wǒ men wǎn shàng zhà jī chī ba.
    Let's fry chicken for dinner tonight.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

炸zhàfry
鸡jīchicken

炸 means fry and 鸡 is the thing fried.

Characters in this word

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 炸 →

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 雞; 鸡 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
隹隹zhuīshort-tailed bird
Sound part声符shēngfú
奚
奚xī雞jī
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 雞 pairs 奚, which gives the sound, with 隹, a short-tailed bird. The simplified 鸡 is a later shorthand, and its right side is not the historical 奚.

Open 鸡 →
Appears in
CookingMeat & Seafood

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.