塘 (táng) · pond, pool, embankment

Measure Word

一个塘 gè

Meanings

1 pond
2 pool
3 embankment
4 dyke

Characters

塘

táng

pond; pool; embankment (single character)

Examples

HSK 4

村子旁边有一口大塘，里面养了很多鱼。

Cūnzi pángbiān yǒu yī kǒu dà táng, lǐmiàn yǎng le hěnduō yú.

Next to the village there is a large pond with many fish in it.

HSK 7-9

孩子们在荷花塘边嬉戏玩耍。

Háizimen zài héhuā táng biān xīxì wánshuǎ.

The children played by the lotus pond.

Tips

usage

塘 specifically refers to a smaller, often man-made body of water - a pond or pool. Larger natural lakes are 湖. 鱼塘 (fish pond) and 荷花塘 (lotus pond) are common compounds. It can also mean an embankment or dyke.

Components

radical

土 tǔ

earth; soil

Left earth radical (Kangxi #32) - a small mound of earth on the ground line, the indexing radical. Anchors 塘 in the earthwork family: 堤 (dyke), 堰 (weir), 坝 (embankment), 城 (city wall). A pond was originally an artificial water-feature: dirt piled up to form an embankment that held water - both senses survive in 塘 (pond and embankment) and in the compound 池塘.

phonetic

唐 táng

Tang dynasty; boast

Right 唐 supplies the sound - táng unchanged. 唐 itself originally meant 'extravagant talk' (a hall 广 over a hand 肀 over a mouth 口), later borrowed for the dynasty name; here the meaning doesn't carry. Pure phonetic. Same phonetic also gives 糖 (sugar), 膛 (chest cavity), 搪 (parry, plaster) - a tight táng phonetic family all built around the same right-side component.