碎 (suì): to break into pieces; to shatter

Meanings

1 to break into pieces; to shatter
2 broken; fragmentary; in pieces
3 trivial; trifling

Characters

碎

suì

broken; shattered; fragmentary

Examples

HSK 3

她碎碎念了一整天。

Tā suì suì niàn le yīzhěngtiān.

She muttered and nagged all day long.

HSK 4

把肉切碎。

Bǎ ròu qiē suì.

Chop the meat into small pieces.

HSK 5

地上都是碎玻璃。

Dìshàng dōu shì suì bōli.

The ground is covered in broken glass.

Tips

usage

碎 is often used as a resultative complement: 打碎 (break by hitting), 摔碎 (break by dropping), 切碎 (chop up). 心碎 (xīnsuì) = heartbroken.

usage

粉碎 (fěnsuì) = to smash/crush completely. 碎片 (suìpiàn) = fragment/shard.

Components

radical

石 shí

stone

Left 石 (stone) - the indexing radical. Smashed pottery and rock fragments are the prototypical broken-into-pieces objects. The stone-radical groups 碎 with 砸 (smash), 砍 (chop), 破 (break) - characters about hard things that shatter.

phonetic

卒 zú

soldier; to finish; to die

Right 卒 supplies the sound (zú → suì, a regular dental-sibilant alternation) and a faint semantic flavour: 卒 means 'finish, end, die' - a thing reduced to fragments has reached its end. Phonetic family: 粹 cuì (pure), 醉 zuì (drunk), 翠 cuì (jade-green) - all on 卒, all phono-semantic.