订婚 (dìng hūn) — to get engaged (to be married) | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

订婚 means 'to get engaged' — the formal arrangement before marriage. It names the whole state/agreement; 求婚 is the act of proposing.

verb

to get engaged (to be married)

Examples

订婚。
Tā shàng ge yuè gēn nán péng you dìng hūn le.
She got engaged to her boyfriend last month.
，。
Tā men yǐ jīng dìng le hūn, míng nián jié hūn.
They are already engaged; they'll get married next year.
，。
Dìng hūn hòu, tā men kāi shǐ zhǔn bèi hūn lǐ.
After getting engaged, they started preparing the wedding.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

订dìngconclude

婚hūnmarriage

订 gives concluding, and 婚 gives marriage; together they mean becoming engaged.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 訂; 订 is its simplified writing.

言丁訂

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

丁

丁dīng訂dìng

Same sound today

The traditional form 訂 combines 言, related to speech, with 丁, which gives the sound; the simplified 订 is a later shorthand.

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

女昏婚

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

昏

昏hūn婚hūn

Same sound today

婚 uses 女 (woman) for the meaning and 昏 for the sound hūn.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 6 Romance & Marriage 5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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