嫁 (jià) · to marry (of a woman), to marry off (a daughter)

Meanings

1 to marry (of a woman)
2 to marry off (a daughter)

Characters

嫁

jià

to marry (of a woman)

Examples

HSK 1

她嫁了一个很好的人。

Tā jià le yígè hěn hǎo de rén.

She married a very good person.

HSK 3

他把女儿嫁到了国外。

Tā bǎ nǚ'ér jià dào le guówài.

He married his daughter off to someone abroad.

Tips

usage

嫁 is used only for women marrying. For men, use 娶. 嫁 implies the woman joins the husband's family, reflecting traditional marriage customs.

memory

嫁 = 女 (woman) + 家 (family) - a woman going to a new family.

Components

radical

女 nǚ

woman

Left woman radical - picturing a kneeling figure with hands folded in front. Anchors 嫁 in the meaning of a woman moving to a new home: to marry off (a daughter), to wed. The grammatical asymmetry with 娶 (a man taking a wife) is preserved in modern usage. Same family: 妈, 姐, 妹, 婚.

phonetic

家 jiā

home; family

Right 家 supplies the sound (jiā → jià, just a tone shift) and rich semantic reinforcement: marrying is exactly the act of joining a 家 home. The two pieces together literally read woman entering a household. 家 itself pictures a pig under a roof, the old emblem of settled domestic life.