verb HSK 7-9 #17,332

Meanings

  1. 1 to translate
  2. 2 to interpret

Examples

HSK 4
Fānyì
to translate; translator
HSK 7-9
Yì wén
translated text

Tips

usage
speech + phonetic - converting speech from one language to another

Components

radical
yán
speech; words (radical form of 言)
Left simplified speech radical (side form of ) anchors in the language/communication family with speak, talk, word, chat. Translation is fundamentally a speech act - turning one tongue into another - so the speech radical carries the meaning directly.
phonetic
shèng
graphic reduction of 睪 (yì-phonetic)
The right side is a 5-stroke graphic reduction of (yì), the original phonetic in traditional . It looks identical to (shèng) in simplified script but is etymologically distinct. Same reduction in , , , 驿 - all once written with , now sharing this 5-stroke residue.

Stroke Order