街 (jiē) · street

Measure Word

一条街 tiáo

Meanings

1 street

Characters

街

jiē

street

Examples

HSK 1

街上的人很多。

Jiē shàng de rén hěn duō.

There are a lot of people on the street.

HSK 2

这条街上有很多商店。

Zhè tiáo jiē shàng yǒu hěn duō shāngdiàn.

There are many shops on this street.

HSK 4

我们去逛街吧！

Wǒmen qù guàngjiē ba!

Let's go shopping!

Tips

usage

逛街 means 'to go window shopping / stroll around shops' - one of the most common collocations.

culture

Famous streets in China include 王府井大街 in Beijing and 南京路 in Shanghai.

Components

radical

行 xíng

crossroads; walk (radical envelope)

Outer 行 wraps around 街 - its three left strokes 彳 stand at the start, three right strokes 亍 close the character. Originally 行 depicted a crossroads, the perfect frame for 'street.' Indexing radical and structural envelope of the entire glyph; stroke indices skip the middle where 圭 sits.

phonetic

圭 guī

jade tablet (here phonetic)

Middle 圭 supplies the sound (guī → jiē with shift) and sits wedged inside the surrounding 行 frame. Same phonetic in 挂, 桂, 卦. The jade-tablet meaning doesn't carry; pure phonetic placement at the heart of the crossroads = a named street running through it.