碎 (suì): to break into pieces; to shatter

Meanings

1 to break into pieces; to shatter
2 broken; fragmentary; in pieces
3 trivial; trifling

Characters

碎

suì

broken; shattered; fragmentary

Examples

杯子摔碎了。

Bēizi shuāi suì le.

The cup fell and shattered.

地上都是碎玻璃。

Dìshàng dōu shì suì bōli.

The ground is covered in broken glass.

把肉切碎。

Bǎ ròu qiē suì.

Chop the meat into small pieces.

她碎碎念了一整天。

Tā suì suì niàn le yīzhěngtiān.

She muttered and nagged all day long.

Tips

usage

碎 is often used as a resultative complement: 打碎 (break by hitting), 摔碎 (break by dropping), 切碎 (chop up). 心碎 (xīnsuì) = heartbroken.

usage

粉碎 (fěnsuì) = to smash/crush completely. 碎片 (suìpiàn) = fragment/shard.

Components

radical

石 shí

stone

Left 石 (stone) - the indexing radical. Smashed pottery and rock fragments are the prototypical broken-into-pieces objects. The stone-radical groups 碎 with 砸 (smash), 砍 (chop), 破 (break) - characters about hard things that shatter.

phonetic

卒 zú

soldier; to finish; to die

Right 卒 supplies the sound (zú → suì, a regular dental-sibilant alternation) and a faint semantic flavour: 卒 means 'finish, end, die' - a thing reduced to fragments has reached its end. Phonetic family: 粹 cuì (pure), 醉 zuì (drunk), 翠 cuì (jade-green) - all on 卒, all phono-semantic.