田 (tián): field; farmland; paddy

Measure Word

一块田 kuài

Meanings

1 field; farmland; paddy
2 a common Chinese surname

Characters

田

tian

field; farmland

Examples

农民在田里干活。

Nóngmín zài tiánlǐ gànhuó.

Farmers are working in the fields.

一望无际的稻田。

Yīwàngwújì de dàotián.

Endless rice paddies stretching as far as the eye can see.

这块田种的是小麦。

Zhèkuài tián zhòng de shì xiǎomài.

This field is planted with wheat.

Tips

memory

田 is a pictograph — it looks like a plot of farmland divided into sections by paths or irrigation channels. One of the easiest characters to remember.

usage

Common compounds: 稻田 (rice paddy), 田野 (fields/open country), 田地 (farmland), 田园 (pastoral/countryside). Also used in 油田 (oil field).

Components

pictograph

田 tián

field

Pictograph of a cultivated field viewed from above: a square plot divided by raised paths into four smaller plots (the cross inside). As Kangxi radical 102 it indexes farming and land characters: 男 (man = field + strength), 苗 (sprout), 界 (boundary), 畔 (path), 留 (stay on the land).

Radical

Field Kangxi #102

Productive radical for agriculture, plots of land, and (by extension) men working them. Strong meaning clue: 男 (man, 'strength in the field'), 界 (boundary), 留 (stay), 畔 (riverbank), 略 (strategy), 番 (turn / foreign). Also a frequent component shape for 'enclosed grid'.