地 (dì) · earth; the planet

Measure Word

一片地 piàn

Meanings

1 earth; the planet
2 ground; floor
3 land; soil; field
4 place; locale; location

Characters

地

dì

earth; ground; land; place

Phono-semantic compound. Left 土 (earth) anchors the meaning; right 也 supplies the historical sound, drifted to dì.

Examples

HSK 1

地上有一本书。

Dì shang yǒu yì běn shū.

There's a book on the floor.

HSK 1

这块地很大。

Zhè kuài dì hěn dà.

This piece of land is very big.

HSK 3

这个地方叫什么名字?

Zhège dìfang jiào shénme míngzi?

What's the name of this place?

Tips

usage

dì is the all-purpose word for everything underfoot: floor, ground, soil, fields, territory, and any specific place. It anchors hundreds of compounds - 地方 (place), 地球 (the Earth), 地铁 (subway), 地图 (map), 地址 (address), 土地 (land). Whenever you're talking about something physical or locational, default to dì.

mistakes

Same character, two completely different readings: noun dì 'earth / place' versus structural particle de that hooks adverbial modifiers onto verbs. Compare 他去了一个地方 (he went to a place - noun, dì) with 他慢慢地走 (he walks slowly - particle, de). When the word right before is an adjective and right after is a verb, read de. Otherwise default to dì.

Components

radical

土 tǔ

earth; soil

Earth radical (Kangxi #32) on the left - pictures a clod of soil resting on a horizontal earth-line. Anchors 地 in the ground / territory family alongside 场 (open ground), 块 (lump), 城 (walled town), 坡 (slope).

phonetic

也 yě

also; (modal particle)

Right 也 supplies the sound - Middle-Chinese reading drifted to dì, a major shift but the rime survives in the rhyming pair 他 / 它 / 她. Same-phonetic family: 池 (pond), 驰 (gallop), 弛 (slacken). On this page the focus is the noun dì 'earth / place'; the toneless adverbial particle de lives on its own page.