Kilo Lingo

(zì mù) - subtitles, captions in Mandarin

Traditional: 字幕

Line drawing of 字幕
Coloured illustration of 字幕
HSK 5
#772 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

subtitles, captions

Word origin

字幕 (zìmù) 'subtitles' joins 字 (zì, 'character, written word') and 幕 (mù, 'curtain, screen'). 字 shows a child 子 under a roof 宀, characters bred under shelter; 幕 has the 巾 (cloth) radical with 莫 (mò) phonetic, a hanging screen, hence text on the screen.

Origin
compound
Root
字 (zì, 宀 roof + 子 child) + 幕 (mù, 巾 cloth + 莫 phonetic, 'screen')

Stroke order

Stroke order for 字

Stroke order for 幕

Examples

I turn on subtitles when watching a movie.

I need to turn on the subtitles.

Subtitles help me understand the movie.

Please make the subtitles a bit bigger.

Please turn on the English subtitles.

字幕 (zì mù) means subtitles, captions. It is used as a noun in everyday Mandarin speech.

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This word is part of lesson 16.