舱 (cāng) · cabin, compartment, hold (of a ship or aircraft)

Measure Word

一个舱 gè

Meanings

1 cabin
2 compartment
3 hold (of a ship or aircraft)

Characters

舱

cāng

cabin; hold; compartment

Examples

HSK 2

头等舱的票很贵。

Tóuděngcāng de piào hěn guì.

First-class cabin tickets are very expensive.

HSK 4

请回到你的座舱。

Qǐng huídào nǐ de zuò cāng.

Please return to your cabin.

Tips

usage

舱 appears in many compounds: 机舱 (aircraft cabin), 船舱 (ship's hold), 头等舱 (first class), 经济舱 (economy class), 太空舱 (space capsule).

memory

The 舟 radical on the left means "boat" - 舱 is the 仓 (warehouse/storage) area of a boat.

Components

radical

舟 zhōu

boat

Boat radical on the left is a pictograph of a flat-bottomed vessel. It indexes 舱 in the watercraft family with 船 ship, 航 to sail, 舰 warship, 艇 small boat. Modern usage has stretched 舱 from boat-hold to aircraft cabin (机舱) and even space capsule (太空舱), but the radical preserves the original maritime origin.

phonetic

仓 cāng

storehouse; warehouse

Right is 仓 "warehouse", supplying the sound exactly: cāng matches cāng. It also leaks meaning powerfully - a 舱 is essentially a storehouse on a boat. Combined image: the boat's storeroom. Same phonetic in 苍 dark blue, 沧 vast water, 创 to create. The simplified 仓 was reduced from 倉 in the reform.