钉 (dīng) · nail; spike; stud

Measure Word

一颗钉 kē

Meanings

1 nail; spike; stud
2 to follow closely; to stick to (somebody)
3 to keep at someone (to get them to do something)

Characters

钉

dīng

nail; to follow closely

Examples

HSK 5

墙上有一颗钉。

Qiáng shàng yǒu yī kē dīng.

There's a nail on the wall.

HSK 5

你要钉紧他。

Nǐ yào dīng jǐn tā.

You need to keep a close eye on him - stick to him.

HSK 5

她是我办公室里的眼中钉。

Tā shì wǒ bàngōngshì lǐ de yǎnzhōngdīng.

She's a thorn in my side at the office.

Tips

grammar

Noun → 钉 (first tone) for the metal object itself: 钉子 (nail), 图钉 (thumbtack), 螺钉 (screw), 铆钉 (rivet), 耳钉 (stud earring). The verb 'to nail something onto something' shifts to 钉 (fourth tone): 钉书机 (stapler). Same character, two tones, picked by the grammatical role.

memory

Doubly the 'nail' character - metal radical 钅 on the left + 丁 on the right, which is itself a pictograph of a nailhead viewed from above. The 丁 phonetic supplies an exact tone match for the noun, and slips into 钉 for the verb sense without changing the spelling.

Components

radical

钅 jīn

metal; gold (radical form)

Left metal radical - simplified side-form of 金, indexing radical for 钉. Marks 钉 as a metal object: nails, tacks, spikes are forged hardware. Same metal-radical family as 锁 (lock), 钱 (money), 铁 (iron), 钥 (key), 锅 (pot). Practical industrial radical for any small forged item.

phonetic

丁 dīng

nail-shape; man

Right phonetic 丁 - supplies the sound exactly (dīng, no shift). Itself one of the oldest characters: a top-down view of a nailhead with the shaft below, the literal pictograph of a nail. So 钉 is doubly the nail-character - metal radical plus a graph that already meant 'nail' on its own. The semantic and phonetic roles fuse perfectly.