(xīng xīng) - star in Mandarin
xīngxīngTraditional: 星星
Translation
star
Word origin
A reduplication of 星 (xīng, star), itself 日 (a celestial body) over 生 (shēng, phonetic). Reduplicating gives the everyday spoken noun.
- Origin
- reduplication
- Root
- 星 (xīng, star), from 日 (sun, celestial body) + 生 (shēng, phonetic)
Stroke order
星
星
Examples
。
The stars are especially bright tonight.
颗。
You can hardly see any stars in the city.
草。
The children lay on the grass counting stars.
颗。
That star is even brighter than the moon.
颗。
There is not a single star in the sky.
星星 (xīngxing) is the star you look up at, and the doubled form is what people actually say. Bare 星 is a bound morpheme in modern speech: it lives inside 星期, 明星, 火星, but on its own it sounds like a label rather than a word.
The measure word is 颗, used for small round things: 一颗星星, 三颗星星. 个 will be understood but sounds off.
The trap is 明星, which is a star in the celebrity sense and never means a light in the sky. Say 她是一个星星 of an actress and you have called her a small astronomical object.
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星星: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "星星" (star): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 55.