厅 (tīng) · hall, living room, office (government department)

Meanings

1 hall
2 living room
3 office (government department)

Characters

厅

tīng

hall; living room; office

Examples

HSK 4

客厅里有一张大沙发。

Kètīng lǐ yǒu yìzhāng dà shāfā.

There's a big sofa in the living room.

HSK 4

餐厅在二楼。

Cāntīng zài èrlóu.

The restaurant is on the second floor.

HSK 5

这套房子是两室一厅。

Zhè tào fángzi shì liǎngshìyìtīng.

This apartment is a two-bedroom, one-living-room.

Tips

usage

厅 appears in many compound words: 客厅 (living room), 餐厅 (restaurant/dining hall), 大厅 (lobby/main hall), 办公厅 (general office of a government body).

culture

In Chinese real estate, apartments are listed as X室Y厅: 三室两厅 = 3 bedrooms, 2 living/dining areas. This is the most important info when apartment hunting.

Components

radical

厂 chǎng

cliff; shelter

Outer 厂 - picturing a cliff overhang or three-sided shelter, the indexing radical. Drastically simplified from the traditional 廳, which used 广 over 聽 (listen) - a hall where audiences are heard. Modern 厅 keeps just the shelter outline. Same shelter family: 厨 (kitchen), 厕 (toilet), 厦 (mansion).

phonetic

丁 dīng

nail; man (here phonetic)

Inner 丁 supplies the sound (dīng → tīng, just a regular initial drift). Replaces the entire 聽 stack of the traditional 廳. The 1956 simplification collapsed twenty-five strokes down to four by keeping only the cliff-shelter outline plus this nail-shaped phonetic. Same phonetic family: 盯 (stare), 顶 (top), 钉 (nail), 订 (order).