jiāng
noun HSK 4 #7,445

Measure Word

tiáo

Meanings

  1. 1 river (large)
  2. 2 the Yangtze River (when used alone)

Examples

Cháng Jiāng shì Zhōngguó zuì cháng de jiāng.
The Yangtze is the longest river in China.
Wǒmen yánzhe jiāngbiān sànbù.
We walked along the riverbank.
Jiāngshuǐ hěn qīngchè.
The river water is very clear.

Tips

usage
and both mean 'river'. is typically used for larger rivers (长江, 珠江), while is more general (黄河, ). In southern China, is more common; in the north, .

Components

radical
shuǐ
water (radical form of 水)
Three-drops water radical on the left — standard side-form of . originally named the Yangtze specifically, largest waterway in the Chinese heartland, before generalizing to any major river. Sister (originally the Yellow River) follows the same pattern: water radical plus phonetic giving a proper-river name that later widened.
phonetic
gōng
work; carpenter's square (here phonetic)
Right supplies the sound — gōng drifts to jiāng through an old g/j palatalization, the same shift seen across the -phonetic family ( red, rainbow, nape, pole). itself depicts a carpenter's square; its meaning has no role in .

Stroke Order

jiāng