队

隊
duì
noun HSK 4 #416

Measure Word

一支队 zhī

Meanings

  1. 1 team
  2. 2 squad
  3. 3 line (of people)

Characters

Mound radical 阝 + 人 (person) - people lined up along a hill.

Examples

HSK 4
Wǒmen duì yíng le!
Our team won!
HSK 5
Qǐng páiduì děnghòu.
Please line up and wait.
HSK 5
Zhè zhī duì hěn qiáng.
This team is very strong.

Tips

usage
排队 = to line up / queue. Very common in daily life. 插队 = to cut in line.

Components

radical
阝 fù
mound; hill (left-side form of 阜)
Mound radical on the left - 阝 on the left is 阜 (hill, earthwork). 队 is the simplified form of 隊, originally meaning a 'fall from a mound', and by extension a tumbling group of soldiers, hence a squad or detachment. Joins the hillside family: 阴, 阳, 险, 防 (defend). The radical preserves the original mound-of-soldiers image.
semantic
人 rén
person
Person on the right - the simplified form replaces the traditional phonetic 㒸 with a clean 人, recasting 队 as a meaning-only compound: a group of people on the mound = a team / unit / squad. Modern usage spans military squads (军队), sports teams (球队), and queues (排队), all keying off this 'organised group of people' core.

Stroke Order

队 duì