拼音
- jiě (third tone, dipping)
elder sister; a young woman (in 小姐)
字形拆解
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.
部首 女 — other characters
- 好hǎo (third tone, dipping) hào (fourth tone, falling)good, fine, well; easy to do; (hào) to be fond of, to like
- 女nǚ (third tone, dipping)woman; female; daughter (in 女儿)
- 妈媽mā (first tone, high and level)mother, mum (chiefly in 妈妈); a form of address for an older married woman
- 妹mèi (fourth tone, falling)younger sister