Kilo Lingo

(jiě jie) - older sister in Mandarin

jiějie

Traditional: 姐姐

Line drawing of 姐姐
Coloured illustration of 姐姐
HSK 2
#740 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

older sister

Word origin

姐姐 means 'older sister'; it reduplicates 姐 (jiě). 姐 is a phono-semantic compound of 女 (the woman radical) and 且 (qiě) as phonetic. Reduplication is the common pattern for kinship terms.

Origin
compound
Root
姐 (jiě: 女 woman radical + 且 phonetic), reduplicated

Stroke order

Stroke order for 姐

Stroke order for 姐

Examples

My older sister is a doctor.

She has two older sisters.

My older sister lives in Shanghai.

My elder sister is three years older than me.

My elder sister just had a baby.

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This word is part of lesson 15.