船 (chuán): boat; ship

Measure Word

一条船 tiáo

Meanings

1 boat; ship

Characters

船

chuán

boat; ship

Boat radical 舟 + 㕣 (mouth of a valley) - a boat navigating waterways

Examples

HSK 2

河上有很多船。

Hé shàng yǒu hěnduō chuán.

There are many boats on the river.

HSK 3

大船在海上慢慢地开着。

Dà chuán zài hǎi shàng mànmàn de kāi zhe.

The big ship is slowly sailing on the sea.

HSK 6

我们坐船去那个岛。

Wǒmen zuò chuán qù nàge dǎo.

We take a boat to that island.

Tips

usage

Types of boats: 轮船 (steamship), 帆船 (sailboat), 渔船 (fishing boat), 游船 (pleasure boat). The verb for riding a boat is 坐船 (sit on a boat) or 乘船.

Components

radical

舟 zhōu

boat

Left indexing boat radical 舟 (Kangxi #137) - pictograph of a dugout canoe with prow, planks, and stern. Carries the meaning core directly. Same radical anchors 舰 (warship), 航 (navigate), 艇 (small boat), 舱 (cabin) - the full nautical family.

phonetic

㕣 yǎn

marsh; valley with stream

Right component 㕣 - ⿱八口, a stream coursing into a basin. Supplies the sound: 㕣 yǎn → chuán through Old Chinese sound shift, no longer transparent but the same phonetic appears in 沿 (follow along) and 铅 (lead metal). Adds a faint semantic of water flowing in a channel - appropriate for a boat moving down a river.