那曲 (nǎ qū) — Nagqu (a prefecture-level city in the Tibet Aut…

Definition

noun

Nagqu (a prefecture-level city in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China)

那曲。
Wǒ qù nián xià tiān qù le nǎ qū.
I went to Nagqu last summer.
那曲。
nǎ qū Wèi yú xī zàng zì zhì qū běi bù.
Nagqu is located in the northern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
那曲。
Cóng lā sà dào nǎ qū kāi chē xū yào hěn cháng shí jiān.
Driving from Lhasa to Nagqu takes a very long time.

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

邑邑yìcity

Sound part声符shēngfú

冄

冉rǎn那nà

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The right part 邑 shows a city, and the left part 冄 (written 冉) gives the sound. The character first named a state and was later used to mean 'that'.

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

曲 is drawn as a bent object, matching the meaning 'bend'.