é
noun HSK 7-9 #6,484

Measure Word

zhī

Meanings

  1. 1 goose

Characters

Examples

Chítáng lǐ yǒu jǐ zhī bái'é.
There are a few white geese in the pond.
É de jiàoshēng hěn xiǎngliàng.
The honking of geese is very loud.

Tips

culture
The Tang dynasty poet Luò Bīnwáng wrote the famous children's poem 《》(Ode to the Goose) at age seven: . It is one of the first poems Chinese children learn.

Components

radical
niǎo
bird (radical)
Right bird radical (Kangxi #196) — simplified from , a 5-stroke contraction of the standalone bird-pictograph (which kept the eye, beak, body, and tail). Carries the meaning: is the domestic goose. Same radical anchors (chicken), (duck), (pigeon), (giant bird) — the whole poultry-and-bird family.
phonetic
I; me (phonetic)
Left phonetic — supplies the sound (wǒ drifted to é via Old Chinese onset shift, regular for this group). Originally a tasselled war-axe used by 'us, our side,' rebus-borrowed for the first-person pronoun. Pure sound-borrow in ; no meaning carry-over. Same phonetic in (sudden/Russia), (moth), 饿 (hungry), (lofty), (graceful woman).

Stroke Order

é