卡子

qiǎzi

noun HSK 7-9 #40,267

Meanings

1 hair clip; hair pin
2 clip; fastener
3 checkpoint; toll gate

Characters

to clip; to wedge

卡 (to clip/wedge) + 子 suffix — something that clips or fastens.

Examples

她用卡子把头发别起来了。

Tā yòng qiǎzi bǎtóu fa bié qǐlái le.

She pinned her hair up with a clip.

这个卡子夹得太紧了。

Zhège qiǎzi jiā de tài jǐn le.

This clip is clamped too tightly.

Tips

mistakes

卡 has two pronunciations: qiǎ (to be stuck, checkpoint, clip) and kǎ (card, as in 卡片 kǎpiàn). 卡子 (qiǎzi) means 'clip/checkpoint' but 卡车 (kǎchē) means 'truck' — same character, different pronunciation, totally different meaning.

Stroke Order

卡 kǎ

子 zǐ