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预赛 (yù sài) — (noun) preliminary competition, preliminaries; (verb) to hold preliminary heats, to conduct preliminaries

Definition

预赛 (yù sài) names the preliminary round of a tournament — the heats before the 决赛 (finals). Unlike 参赛 ('take part in a competition') or 竞赛 ('compete / race'), it refers to the stage of the event, not the act of competing.

noun
preliminary competitionpreliminaries
verb
to hold preliminary heatsto conduct preliminaries
Measure word · 场

Examples

  • 预赛。
    Tā tōng guò le yù sài.
    He passed the preliminaries.
  • 预赛。
    Xué xiào míng tiān yù sài suǒ yǒu xiàng mù.
    The school will hold preliminaries for all events tomorrow.
  • 预赛。
    yù sài De chéng jì jué dìng le jué sài zī gé.
    The preliminary results determine qualification for the finals.

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.

预yùpreliminary
赛sàicompetition

预 means preliminary and 赛 means competition, so the word names an early round of a contest.

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 預; 预 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
頁頁yè
Sound part声符shēngfú
予
予yǔ預yù
Same sound today

The traditional form 預 combines 予 for the sound and 頁 for the meaning; the simplified 预 is a later shorthand.

Open 预 →

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 賽; 赛 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
貝貝bèishell
Sound part声符shēngfú
塞
塞sāi賽sài
Same sound today

The traditional form 賽 uses 貝 (shell) for meaning and 塞 for sound. The simplified 赛 is a later shorthand.

Open 赛 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9HSK 2.0 Level 6Sports & Athletics

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