井 (jǐng): well (for water)

Measure Word

一口井 kǒu

Meanings

1 well (for water)
2 mine shaft; pit

Characters

井

jǐng

well (for water)

The character looks like the wooden frame around a well opening.

Examples

村里有一口老井。

Cūn lǐ yǒu yī kǒu lǎo jǐng.

There is an old well in the village.

井里的水很凉。

Jǐng lǐ de shuǐ hěn liáng.

The water in the well is very cool.

坐井观天。

Zuò jǐng guān tiān.

Sit in a well and watch the sky. (Have a narrow view of the world.)

这口井已经干了。

Zhè kǒu jǐng yǐjīng gān le.

This well has already dried up.

Tips

culture

坐井观天 (zuò jǐng guān tiān, 'a frog sitting at the bottom of a well looking at the sky') is a famous idiom about having a limited worldview. The full form is 井底之蛙 (jǐng dǐ zhī wā, 'the frog at the bottom of the well').

usage

井 appears in many compound words: 水井 (shuǐjǐng, water well), 油井 (yóujǐng, oil well), 矿井 (kuàngjǐng, mine shaft), 天井 (tiānjǐng, skywell/courtyard). The character 井 itself looks like the cross-section of a well.

grammar

The measure word for wells is 口 (kǒu, mouth), because a well has an opening like a mouth. This is the same 口 used for 口 of a pot or a 口 of people (in some dialects).