耶 (yē) · phonetic syllable in transliterations, Jesus (in 耶稣)

Meanings

1 phonetic syllable in transliterations
2 Jesus (in 耶稣)
3 yay
4 yeah

Characters

耶

yē

phonetic syllable; Jesus (in 耶稣); yay

Examples

HSK 3

耶稣出生在伯利恒。

Yēsū chūshēng zài Bólìhéng.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

HSK 4

耶！我们赢了！

Yē! wǒmen yíng le!

Yay! We won!

HSK 7-9

耶路撒冷是三个宗教的圣城。

Yēlùsālěng shì sān gè zōngjiào de shèngchéng.

Jerusalem is a holy city for three religions.

Tips

register

Three readings, but only one is alive today. (1) yē is the workhorse - a phonetic syllable for foreign names: 耶稣 (Jesus), 耶路撒冷 (Jerusalem), 耶鲁 (Yale). The same yē also doubles as a modern exclamation borrowed from English 'yay'. (2) yé is a classical interrogative particle (≈ 吗 / 呢), seen only in classical texts like 史公果死耶 - never in modern speech. (3) Toneless ye is a rare sentence-final enthusiasm particle. For learners: assume yē unless you're reading classical Chinese.

memory

Ear 耳 on the left + city-side 阝 on the right reads as 'ear toward a faraway place' - fitting for a character that mostly transliterates foreign names from Jerusalem to Yale to Samoyed.

Components

radical

耳 ěr

ear

Left indexing radical 耳 (ear) - pictograph of an ear with canal and lobe. Historically 耶 was a sentence-final question particle suggesting attentive listening, hence the ear. Today the ear radical functions purely as the lookup index - the modern char is mostly a transliteration syllable and an enthusiasm exclamation.

phonetic

阝 yì

city; place (right form of 邑)

Right-side 阝 - when on the right it represents 邑 (city, place), distinct from the left-side mound form. Here it provides a partial sound (yì → yē / yé) and faintly fits the 'distant place' nuance behind foreign-name transliterations. Same right-阝 in 都 (capital), 部 (region), 郊 (suburb), 邦 (nation).