国家
The English phrase "countries" is translated into Chinese as 国家.
国家 refers to a country or nation. It can be used to describe a political entity, such as a nation-state or a specific country in a geographical sense.
What does it mean word for word?
The word 国家 is composed of 国 (guó), meaning 'state' or 'territory' and 家 (jiā), meaning 'family' or 'home'.
Which one should you use?
While the single character 国 also means 'country' in many contexts, 国家 is the more formal and complete term for 'the state' or 'the nation'.
How does it change in a sentence?
The noun 国家 does not change its form to indicate plurality. Instead, the number of countries is indicated by context or by adding a number and a measure word.
Did you know?
- The term 国家 can be used to refer to a 'household' in very ancient classical texts, mirroring the word's internal component 家.
- The character 家 meaning 'home' in 国家 is also used to denote a professional or a master of a craft, such as a 'scientist' or 'artist'.
- The character 国 is often written as 國 in Traditional Chinese, where the inner part 或 originally represented a piece of land enclosed by a boundary.
Examples in context
- 你去过哪些国家？Which countries have you visited?Tatoeba #1428132 by sadhen, translation #682337 by Source_VOA
- 人们不应该侵犯自己读不正确名字的国家。People shouldn't be allowed to invade countries whose names they can't pronounce correctly.Tatoeba #5067372 by jiaweikai, translation #5066861 by mailohilohi
- 马里是在撒哈拉以南非洲最贫穷的国家之一。Mali is one of the poorest countries in Subsaharan Africa.Tatoeba #9972807 by GlossaMatik, translation #2381 by Zifre
- 19 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Yuting and Haoran are talking about their dream vacations.
- 雨婷 Yuting你想去哪些国家旅游？Nǐ xiǎng qù nǎxiē guójiā lǚyóu?Which countries do you want to travel to?
- 浩然 Haoran我想去欧洲的几个国家。Wǒ xiǎng qù Ōuzhōu de jǐ gè guójiā.I want to go to a few countries in Europe.
- 雨婷 Yuting那你最想去哪个国家？Nà nǐ zuì xiǎng qù nǎge guójiā?Then which country do you want to visit most?
- 浩然 Haoran我最想去法国。Wǒ zuì xiǎng qù Fǎguó.I want to go to France the most.
Sources
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
