桥 (qiáo): bridge

Measure Word

一座桥 zuò

Meanings

1 bridge

Characters

桥

qiáo

bridge

Examples

河上有一座桥。

Hé shàng yǒu yī zuò qiáo.

There's a bridge over the river.

我们从桥上走过去。

Wǒmen cóng qiáoshàng zǒuguò qù.

Let's walk across the bridge.

这座古桥有五百年历史。

Zhè zuò gǔ qiáo yǒu wǔbǎi nián lìshǐ.

This ancient bridge is 500 years old.

Tips

culture

Famous Chinese bridges include 赵州桥 (Zhàozhōu Qiáo), a stone arch bridge built around 605 AD, one of the oldest standing bridges in the world.

Components

radical

木 mù

tree; wood

Left tree radical — indexing radical for 桥. Bridges in ancient China were predominantly wooden plank-and-beam constructions, so the 木 classification is literal. Same wood-radical family as 桌 (table), 椅 (chair), 板 (plank), 林 (forest). Marks 桥 as something built from timber.

phonetic

乔 qiáo

tall; lofty

Right phonetic 乔 — supplies the sound exactly (qiáo, no drift) and adds a faint semantic flavor: 乔 originally meant 'tall, towering,' fitting for an arched bridge spanning a river. Simplified from the traditional 喬; shared with 侨 (overseas Chinese — those who have gone afar/high) and 骄 (proud). Same right side in 矫, 娇.