头 (tou): toneless noun suffix

Meanings

1 toneless noun suffix
2 forms diminutives
3 nominalizes a root into a concrete noun

Characters

头

tou

toneless noun suffix

Examples

这块木头很重。

Zhè kuài mùtou hěn zhòng.

This piece of wood is very heavy.

盒子里头有一块小石头。

Hézi lǐtou yǒu yī kuài xiǎo shítou.

There's a small stone inside the box.

我们在外头等他们吧。

Wǒmen zài wàitou děng tāmen ba.

Let's wait for them outside.

Tips

grammar

Toneless 头 is a noun-forming suffix — it has no meaning of its own, it just turns a one-syllable root into a proper everyday noun. Common in concrete objects (木头 wood, 石头 stone, 骨头 bone, 馒头 steamed bun, 罐头 can/tin) and locatives (里头 inside, 外头 outside, 上头 above, 下头 below, 前头 in front, 后头 behind). Stress falls on the root; the suffix is reduced.

mistakes

Pronounce the suffix neutral, not fourth tone — saying 石头 (with full tone) makes it sound like "head of stone" instead of just "stone". The same root can take or drop the suffix with no change in meaning: 石头 = 石 (stone). Some pairs have both readings with different senses: 上头 (above) vs 上头 (to go to one's head, of drink or feeling).

Components

radical

大 dà

big; person with outstretched arms

Bottom 大 is the indexing radical of this simplified form. The same glyph carries both readings — full-tone 头 (head, top, chief) and toneless 头 (the noun suffix used here). Traditional 頭 was 豆+頁; the 1956 reform collapsed the body to 大.

ideograph

⺀ diǎn

two-dot marker; pair of small ticks

Twin top dots are abstract markers indicating prominence or top-of-something. They are the simplified residue of the much fuller traditional 頭 top (豆), now compressed to two stylised ticks that sit above the head-shape below.