甜 (tián): sweet

Meanings

1 sweet
2 pleasant; happy (figurative)

Characters

甜

tián

sweet

Combines 舌 (tongue) with 甘 (sweet) — sweetness as tasted by the tongue.

Examples

这个西瓜很甜。

Zhège xīguā hěn tián.

This watermelon is very sweet.

她笑得很甜。

Tā xiào de hěn tián.

She has a sweet smile.

太甜了，我不喜欢。

Tài tián le, wǒ bù xǐhuan.

It's too sweet, I don't like it.

Tips

usage

甜 can describe food or figuratively describe a person's smile, voice, or romantic relationships. 甜蜜 means 'sweet and honey-like', used for romantic love.

Components

radical

甘 gān

sweet; pleasant

Right side 甘 — also the indexing radical (Kangxi #99). 甘 is itself an ideograph: a mouth 口 with a marker dot inside, signalling something held on the tongue with pleasure. 甘 already means 'sweet,' so 甜 = tongue + sweetness, a transparent compound ideograph. Same radical also in 甚 'extreme.'

semantic

舌 shé

tongue

Left side 舌 — pictograph of a tongue extending from a mouth. Provides the meaning hand-in-hand with the right side: a tongue that tastes 甘 sweetness. Same 舌 anchors 话, 活, 舔 — the tongue/talking family. Here it grounds 甜 firmly in the mouth, the place where sweetness is experienced.