鹅

鵝
é
noun HSK 7-9 #6,484

Measure Word

一只鹅 zhī

Meanings

  1. 1 goose

Characters

Examples

HSK 7-9
Chítáng lǐ yǒu jǐ zhī bái é.
There are a few white geese in the pond.
HSK 7-9
É de jiàoshēng hěn xiǎngliàng.
The honking of geese is very loud.

Tips

culture
The Tang dynasty poet 骆宾王 wrote the famous children's poem 《咏鹅》 (Ode to the Goose) at age seven: 鹅鹅鹅,曲项向天歌. It is one of the first poems Chinese children learn.

Components

radical
鸟 niǎo
bird (radical)
Right bird radical (Kangxi #196) - simplified from 鳥, a 5-stroke contraction of the standalone bird-pictograph (which kept the eye, beak, body, and tail). Carries the meaning: 鹅 is the domestic goose. Same radical anchors 鸡 (chicken), 鸭 (duck), 鸽 (pigeon), 鹏 (giant bird) - the whole poultry-and-bird family.
phonetic
我 wǒ
I; me (phonetic)
Left phonetic 我 - supplies the sound (wǒ drifted to é via Old Chinese onset shift, regular for this group). Originally a tasselled war-axe used by 'us, our side,' rebus-borrowed for the first-person pronoun. Pure sound-borrow in 鹅; no meaning carry-over. Same phonetic in 俄 (sudden/Russia), 蛾 (moth), 饿 (hungry), 峨 (lofty), 娥 (graceful woman).

Stroke Order

鹅 é