句jù

句

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Simplified · Today

简体

Simplified Chinese

Modern simplified form (簡體). 句 (jù, "sentence") remains unchanged from traditional, combining the ancient radical 勹 (wrap) with 口 (mouth) to depict speech wrapped in voice. As both a character and radical, it measures sentences in Chinese and appears in 结构 (structure), 旬 (ten-day period), and 狗 (dog).

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Shuowen

句. The character combines a curved hook element (the ancient form of which resembled a bending line) enclosing a mouth (口), together depicting the image of breath curving within the mouth—the original meaning being "to bend" or "curve." From this sense of curved enclosure came the notion of a complete unit of speech, as a sentence wraps words together as the curve wraps the mouth.

Pinyin

jù· HSK 2

句jù

Character evolution

Shuowen

Pinyin