舔 (tiǎn) · to lick

Meanings

1 to lick

Characters

舔

tiǎn

to lick

Examples

HSK 5

小狗不停地舔主人的手。

Xiǎogǒu bùtíng de tiǎn zhǔrén de shǒu.

The puppy kept licking its owner's hand.

HSK 5

孩子舔了一口冰淇淋。

Háizi tiǎn le yī kǒu bīngqílín.

The child licked the ice cream.

Tips

memory

The 舌 (tongue) radical on the left tells you this is something done with the tongue.

Components

radical

舌 shé

tongue

Left tongue radical, the indexing component (Kangxi 135). Pictures a tongue extended from a mouth - directly relevant: licking is the action of the tongue. 舌 anchors the meaning while the right side supplies the sound.

phonetic

忝 tiǎn

to disgrace; humbly

Right side 忝 supplies the sound: standalone tiǎn matches the parent reading exactly with no tone shift. 忝 is a less common character meaning 'to disgrace, to be unworthy,' but here it functions purely as a phonetic - a same-sound borrowing rather than a meaning contributor.