牛奶 (niú nǎi) — milk | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

milk

Measure word · 瓶, 杯

Examples

牛奶。
Wǒ měi tiān zǎo shàng hē yì bēi niú nǎi.
I drink a glass of milk every morning.
牛奶。
Zhè lǐ yǒu yì píng niú nǎi.
There's a bottle of milk here.
牛奶。
Wǒ xiǎng mǎi yì píng niú nǎi.
I want to buy a bottle of milk.

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.

牛 is the source and 奶 is milk, so the word means cow's milk.

Characters in this word

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

牛 is drawn as a bull's head, with two horns and two ears.

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

女乃奶

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

乃

乃nǎi奶nǎi

Same sound today

奶 combines 女, a woman, and 乃, which gives the sound.

Appears in

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