Tuttle Chinese-English Dictionary. Li Dong

句 for sentences

      kē 棵 for trees

      kè 克 gram

      kè 刻 quarter of an hour

      kǒu 口 for members of a family

      kuài 块 for things that can be broken into lumps or chunks; for money; yuan, dollar

      lǐ 里 a Chinese unit of length, equivalent to 0.5 kilometers

      lì 粒 for rice, pearls

      liǎng 两 a traditional Chinese unit of weight, equivalent to 50 grams; ounce

      liàng 辆 for vehicles

      liè 列 for trains

      máo 毛 a Chinese money unit, colloquialism for 角 jiǎo (= 0.1 元 yuán or 10 分 fēn)

      mēn 门 for school subjects, languages, etc.

      mǐ 米 meter (colloquial)

      miàn 面 for flat objects

      miǎo 秒 second (of time)

      míng 名 for people, especially for those with a specific position or occupation

      mǔ 亩 a traditional Chinese unit of area, especially in farming (equal to 1/15 hectare or 667 square meters)

      pái 排 for things arranged in a row

      pī 批 for a batch of goods, and for things/people arriving at the same time

      pǐ 匹 for horses

      piān 篇 for a piece of writing

      piàn 片 for a thin and flat piece, slice

      píng 瓶 a bottle of

      qún 群 a crowd/group of

      shēn 身 for clothes

      shǒu 首 for songs and poems

      shuāng 双 a pair of (shoes, chopsticks, etc.)

      suì 岁 year (of age)

      suǒ 所 for houses, or institutions housed in a building

      tái 台 for machines, big instruments, etc.

      tàng 趟 for trips

      tào 套 a set of

      tiáo 条 for things with a long, narrow shape

      tóu 头 for cattle or sheep

      wèi 位 a polite measure word for people

      xià 下 used with certain verbs to indicate the number of times the action is done

      xiàng 项 item, component

      yè 页 for pages (of a book)

      yīngchǐ 英尺 foot (as a measurement of length)

      yīngcùn 英寸 inch

      yuán 元 the basic unit of Chinese currency (1 元 yuán = 10 角 jiǎo/毛 máo = 100 分 fēn), dollar

      zhāng 张 for paper, beds, tables, desks

      zhèn 阵 for an action or event that lasts for some time

      zhī 支 for stick-like things

      zhī 只 for animals, utensils, or objects

      zhǒng 种 kind, sort

      zuò 座 for large and solid objects, such as a large building

      Using the Dictionary

      Note: You are recommended to read Introducing Chinese (pp.vii–xiv) before using the dictionary.

      1 Pronunciation

      The pronunciation of Chinese words as transcribed in this dictionary uses the pinyin scheme, which is the official, internationally recognized Chinese romanization system. Every Chinese character in this dictionary is accompanied by its pinyin spelling so that you will know how to pronounce every word and say every sentence.

      2 Word-formation

      Word-formation methods of Chinese headwords are indicated, whenever it is practical to do so. The information is shown immediately after the headword, e.g.

      爱护 àihù [comp: 爱 love + 护 protect]

      3 Word class

      The word class of each headword is indicated after the word-formation or immediately after the head word, e.g.

      爱护 àihù [comp: 爱 love + 护 protect] v

      阿姨 āyí n mother’s sister

      When a headword may be used in different word classes, they are shown by I, II, and so on, e.g.

      爱好 àihào I v like, be interested in, have as a hobby

       II n hobby, interest

      4 Traditional characters

      If a character has a traditional version (传统字 chuántǒng zì, also known as 繁体字 fántǐzì “complicated character”), it is shown as part of the headword, preceded by Trad, e.g.:

      爱 ài Trad 愛

      5 Definitions

      For Chinese headwords English equivalents or near equivalents are given, in most cases, as definitions, e.g.

      高兴 gāoxìng adj joyful, delighted, willing

      For grammatical words that have no English equivalents, concise explanations are given in brackets, e.g.

      的 de particle (attached to a word, phrase or clause to indicate that it is an attribute. 的 de is normally followed by a noun.)

      When a headword has more than one meaning under the same word class, the different meanings are indicated by 1, 2, etc. For example:

      月 yuè n 1 month 2 the moon

      Homonyms (words pronounced and written the same but with different, unrelated meanings) are treated as separate words, e.g.

      代¹ dài n 1 generation

      代² dài v take the place of, perform on behalf of

      6 Measure Words

      After the definition of a Chinese noun, the specific measure word used with the noun is shown, if it is one of the headwords in the dictionary, e.g.

      书 shū book (本 běn)

      When the specific measure word is not within the scope of this dictionary and therefore is not shown, you can often use the default measure word 个 ge.

      7 Antonyms

      Antonyms (words of opposite meaning) are shown after the definition of most Chinese adjec­tives and some nouns, if they are headwords of the Chinese-English dictionary, e.g.

      短 duǎn adj (of length, time) short (antonym 长 cháng)

      8 Common Collocations

      Collocations are words habitually juxtaposed with each other. This dictionary shows common collocations related to the headwords, with clear definitions and necessary sample sentences. For example:

      包 bāo n parcel, bag

      钱包 qiánbāo wallet, purse

      书包 shūbāo schoolbag

      邮包 yóubāo mailbag, parcel for posting

      9 Example Sentences

      Words become really meaningful only when used in sentences. That is why a host of example sentences are supplied for almost each and every headword in the dictionary. All the sentences are carefully constructed to be idiomatic and communicatively useful. For example, the headword bàozhǐ 报纸 has two example sentences:

      报纸 bàozhǐ □ 我很少看报纸。Wǒ hěn