岛 (dǎo) · island

Measure Word

一座岛 zuò

Meanings

1 island

Characters

岛

dǎo

island

A bird 鸟 resting on a mountain 山.

Examples

HSK 4

他们去了一个美丽的小岛度假。

Tāmen qù le yígè měilì de xiǎodǎo dùjià.

They went on vacation to a beautiful small island.

HSK 4

这座岛上住着几百个人。

Zhè zuò dǎo shàng zhù zhe jǐ bǎi gè rén.

Several hundred people live on this island.

HSK 7-9

海南岛是中国最大的热带岛屿。

Hǎinán dǎo shì Zhōngguó zuì dà de rèdài dǎoyǔ.

Hainan Island is China's largest tropical island.

Tips

usage

岛 is often part of place names: 青岛 (Qīngdǎo), 海南岛, 台湾岛. 岛屿 is the more formal/written form meaning 'islands.' 半岛 = peninsula.

culture

The traditional form 島 shows a bird 鳥 above a mountain 山 - a bird perched on a rocky island in the sea.

Components

radical

山 shān

mountain

Mountain radical at the bottom - Kangxi 46. Islands are mountain peaks rising above the water, so 山 is properly semantic and serves as the indexing radical. The same mountain shows up in 岸 shore, 峰 peak, 岭 ridge, 岩 rock.

semantic

鸟 niǎo

bird

The bird element wraps the top, but with its bottom horizontal stroke replaced by the 山 below - standalone 鸟 has 5 strokes; here only 4 because the closing stroke is 'shared' with the mountain. The image is a migrating bird perched on a rocky outcrop in the sea, hence 'island'.