题 (tí): question; problem

Measure Word

一道题 dào

Meanings

1 question; problem
2 topic

Characters

题

tí

topic; question; title

Examples

这道题太难了。

Zhè dào tí tài nán le.

This question is too hard.

老师出了五道题。

Lǎoshī chū le wǔ dào tí.

The teacher gave five questions.

我们今天讨论什么题？

Wǒmen jīntiān tǎolùn shénme tí?

What topic are we discussing today?

Tips

grammar

Use 道 as the measure word for questions/problems: 一道题, 两道题.

usage

题 appears in many compounds: 问题 (question/problem), 难题 (difficult problem), 题目 (title/topic).

Components

radical

页 yè

head; page (radical)

Right indexing radical 页 — originally pictured a head with hair, now generalized to head-words and topics. 题 once meant 'forehead / inscription on the forehead,' from which the 'topic, title, question' senses spread. Same radical anchors 颜 (face), 颈 (neck), 顶 (top).

phonetic

是 shì

to be (here phonetic)

Left-cradle 是 supplies the sound (shì → tí, with the dental t/sh alternation typical of this phonetic family). The copula meaning of 是 doesn't carry. The phonetic recurs cleanly in 提 (tí, lift), 堤 (dī, dike), 醍 (tí, tea-color) — a tightly clustered series in modern Mandarin.