鸡

雞
jī
noun HSK 3 #1,024

Measure Word

一只鸡 zhī

Meanings

  1. 1 chicken

Examples

HSK 2
Wǒ xiǎng chī jīròu.
I want to eat chicken.
HSK 3
Nǎinai jiā yǎng le hěn duō jī.
Grandma's family raises many chickens.
HSK 6
Zhè zhī jī hěn féi.
This chicken is very fat.

Tips

culture
Chicken is one of the most important meats in Chinese cuisine. Whole chicken is served at celebrations and family gatherings.

Components

radical
鸟 niǎo
bird
Bird radical on the right is the indexing component, classing 鸡 in the bird family with 鸭 duck, 鹅 goose, 鸽 pigeon, 鹰 eagle. The radical alone makes 鸡 transparent: 'a bird' - and culture supplies the rest, since chicken is far and away the most common domesticated bird in Chinese kitchens.
phonetic
又 yòu
again; hand (here phonetic substitute)
Left is 又 'again/hand' - a pictograph of a right hand. In 鸡 it serves as a simplified phonetic substitute. The traditional 雞 had 奚 on the left, a 10-stroke phonetic; the 1956 reform replaced it with the 2-stroke 又 to slash the character's complexity. The sound link to jī is loose - this is a reform-era shortcut where the radical does most of the work.

Stroke Order

鸡 jī