芽 (yá) · sprout, bud, shoot

Measure Word

一个芽 gè

Meanings

1 sprout
2 bud
3 shoot

Characters

芽

yá

sprout; bud

Examples

HSK 5

豆芽是一种很受欢迎的蔬菜。

Dòuyá shì yī zhǒng hěn shòu huānyíng de shūcài.

Bean sprouts are a very popular vegetable.

HSK 6

春天到了，树枝上长出了新芽。

Chūntiān dào le, shùzhī shàng zhǎng chū le xīn yá.

Spring has come, and new buds have appeared on the branches.

Tips

memory

The character has 艹 (grass radical) on top and 牙 (tooth) on the bottom. A sprout poking through the soil looks like a little tooth emerging from the earth.

Components

radical

艹 cǎo

grass; plant (top radical)

Top grass radical in compressed 3-stroke form - indexing 芽 with the botanical family (花 flower, 草 grass, 苗 sprout, 莲 lotus). Carries the core meaning: a sprout is the first green thing pushing out of the soil, so the grass radical is doing real semantic work, not just acting as a category cap.

phonetic

牙 yá

tooth; fang

Bottom 牙 supplies the sound - yá straight through, no drift. The 'tooth' meaning is more than coincidence: a sprout pokes up like a small tooth breaking through the gum, and Chinese botany leans on the metaphor - 萌芽 to sprout, 嫩芽 tender shoot. The phonetic doubles as a vivid image.