田 (tián) · field; farmland; paddy

Measure Word

一块田 kuài

Meanings

1 field; farmland; paddy
2 a common Chinese surname

Characters

田

tián

field; farmland

Examples

HSK 5

农民在田里干活。

Nóngmín zài tiánlǐ gànhuó.

Farmers are working in the fields.

HSK 6

这块田种的是小麦。

Zhèkuài tián zhòng de shì xiǎomài.

This field is planted with wheat.

HSK 7-9

一望无际的稻田。

Yíwàngwújì de dàotián.

Endless rice paddies stretching as far as the eye can see.

Tips

memory

田 is a pictograph - it looks like a plot of farmland divided into sections by paths or irrigation channels. One of the easiest characters to remember.

usage

Common compounds: 稻田 (rice paddy), 田野 (fields/open country), 田地 (farmland), 田园 (pastoral/countryside). Also used in 油田 (oil field).

Components

pictograph

田 tián

field

Pictograph of a cultivated field viewed from above: a square plot divided by raised paths into four smaller plots (the cross inside). As Kangxi radical 102 it indexes farming and land characters: 男 (man = field + strength), 苗 (sprout), 界 (boundary), 畔 (path), 留 (stay on the land).

Radical

Field Kangxi #102

Productive radical for agriculture, plots of land, and (by extension) men working them. Strong meaning clue: 男 (man, 'strength in the field'), 界 (boundary), 留 (stay), 畔 (riverbank), 略 (strategy), 番 (turn / foreign). Also a frequent component shape for 'enclosed grid'.