苹 (píng) · apple

Meanings

1 apple

Characters

苹

píng

apple (used in 苹果)

Examples

HSK 1

我想吃苹果。

Wǒ xiǎng chī píngguǒ.

I want to eat an apple.

HSK 3

苹果很甜。

Píngguǒ hěn tián.

The apple is very sweet.

Tips

usage

苹 is almost exclusively used in the word 苹果 (apple). It does not appear independently in modern Chinese.

Components

radical

艹 cǎo

grass; plant (top radical)

Top grass radical - the standard 3-stroke compressed form of 艸. Indexes 苹 in the plant family. Originally 苹 named a water plant (similar to clover); in modern Mandarin it survives almost exclusively in the compound 苹果, apple - the "flat fruit" by folk-etymology.

phonetic

平 píng

flat; level

Bottom 平 supplies the sound píng directly, no drift. 平 also adds a faint semantic image - an apple has a flat-ish profile compared to peaches and pears. Same phonetic powers 评 comment, 苹 itself, 萍 duckweed; in this character it is pure phonetic with happy semantic accident.