HSK Guide

姐 jiě — elder sister; a young woman (in 小姐)

jiě (third tone, dipping)

elder sister; a young woman (in 小姐)

8 strokesRadical 女Frequency #613
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Pinyin

  • jiě (third tone, dipping)

elder sister; a young woman (in 小姐)

Character breakdown

Ideographic description

⿰女且The sequence reads left to right and describes how the parts are arranged.

  • 女meaning partThe woman radical.
  • 且sound partno entry yet且 qiě for the sound. On its own it is the classical conjunction "moreover"; the oldest reading of the graph is an ancestral tablet standing on its base.

Mnemonic

A woman 女 with 且 qiě beside her for the sound. Chinese does not have one word for "sister": 姐姐 is the elder and 妹妹 the younger, and the difference is compulsory. 小姐 is the ordinary way to address a young woman in Taiwan and in service, though on the mainland it has picked up a second, coarser sense and 女士 is safer in writing.

A memory aid written by HSK Guide editors. It is not an etymology and does not describe the historical origin of the character.

Words containing 姐

Radical 女 — other characters