瓶 (píng): bottle

Meanings

1 bottle
2 measure word for bottled things

Characters

瓶

píng

bottle; vase

Contains 瓦 (tile/pottery) — a pottery vessel.

Examples

一瓶水

Yì píng shuǐ

a bottle of water

请给我两瓶啤酒。

Qǐng gěi wǒ liǎng píng píjiǔ.

Please give me two bottles of beer.

这瓶酒很贵。

Zhè píng jiǔ hěn guì.

This bottle of wine is very expensive.

Tips

usage

瓶 is the everyday measure word for bottled liquids: 一瓶水 (a bottle of water), 一瓶酒 (a bottle of wine), 一瓶啤酒 (a bottle of beer). It also appears in 花瓶 (flower vase) and 瓶子 (bottle, the noun on its own).

Components

radical

瓦 wǎ

tile; pottery; ceramic

Right pottery radical — the indexing radical. Marks 瓶 as a clay/ceramic vessel, since bottles, jars, and vases historically were ceramic. Same family as 瓷 (porcelain). The radical itself depicts overlapping interlocking tiles — a vivid image of fired clay.

phonetic

并 bìng

side by side (here phonetic)

Left 并 supplies the sound (bìng → píng, with consonant softening). Same phonetic series as 屏 (screen), 拼 (piece together), 饼 (pancake). The original 'side by side' image of two figures isn't relevant here; this is a pure sound carrier.