钳 (qián) · pincers; pliers; tongs

Measure Word

一把钳 bǎ

Meanings

1 pincers; pliers; tongs
2 claw (of an animal)
3 to clamp; to grip with pincers

Characters

钳

qián

pincers; to clamp

Examples

HSK 5

请递给我一把钳子。

Qǐng dìgěi wǒ yī bǎ qiánzi.

Please hand me a pair of pliers.

HSK 7-9

螃蟹的钳很有力。

Pángxiè de qián hěn yǒulì.

A crab's claws are very powerful.

Tips

usage

钳 alone refers to the tool or claw. 钳子 is the more common colloquial form for pliers/tongs.

memory

The radical 钅 (metal) + 甘 (sweet) - imagine a metal tool sweetly gripping things tight.

Components

radical

钅 jīn

metal; gold (radical form of 金)

Left-side metal radical - the 5-stroke compressed form of 金. Indexing radical, putting 钳 in the metal-implement family (钉 nail, 锁 lock, 锤 hammer, 链 chain). Carries the core meaning: pliers, tongs, and clamps are metal gripping tools, so the radical does real semantic work.

phonetic

甘 gān

sweet; willing

Right 甘 supplies the sound - gān drifting to qián via the regular k-/q- palatalization that affected this whole series. The 'sweet' meaning of 甘 (a mouth holding something tasty) doesn't enter; it is a pure sound-tag. Same phonetic family: 甜 sweet, 拑 pincer, 柑 mandarin orange - all carrying the gān / qián sound.