价 (jià) · price; value

Meanings

1 price; value
2 cost

Characters

价

jià

price; value

Examples

HSK 3

这个东西的价格是多少？

Zhège dōngxi de jiàgé shì duōshao?

How much does this cost?

HSK 3

房价太高了。

Fángjià tài gāo le.

Housing prices are too high.

HSK 4

打折的价钱很便宜。

Dǎzhé de jiàqian hěn piányi.

The discounted price is very cheap.

Tips

usage

价 appears in 价格 (price), 价钱 (price/cost), 价值 (value), 物价 (commodity prices), 评价 (to evaluate). It is usually combined with other characters rather than used alone.

register

Two minor readings exist: a literary jiè meaning 'messenger / servant', and a dialectal particle jie used between an adverb and a verb for emphasis, as in 震天价响 ('roaring fit to shake the sky'). Standard everyday use is jià.

Components

radical

亻 rén

person (radical form)

Left radical 亻, person. The traditional 價 was 亻 plus 賈 (merchant). The simplified form keeps the person radical and swaps in the simpler 介. Price is a human construct: what one person will give another for a thing.

phonetic

介 jiè

between; mediate

Right component 介 supplies the sound (jiè drifted to jià) plus a fitting echo: 介 means 'in between, to mediate', and a price is the mediator between buyer and seller, the agreed in-between value. The traditional 價 instead used the merchant 賈 as phonetic.