歌词
gēcí
The English phrase "lyrics" is translated into Chinese as 歌词 (gēcí).
歌词 refers to the words of a song.
Meaning: the words to a song (noun)
What does it mean word for word?
The word is composed of 歌 (gē), meaning song and 词 (cí), meaning words or lyrics.
How does it change in a sentence?
歌词 is a mass noun and does not typically take a plural marker to indicate multiple sets of lyrics.
How do you pronounce it?
gēcí
Did you know?
- The word 词 once referred to a specific poetic form from the Song Dynasty that was designed to be sung, rather than just general 'words'.
- Traditional Chinese opera often uses lyrics written in 文言文 'Classical Chinese', which is a literary language distinct from the spoken language of the audience.
- In Chinese music culture, a person who writes only the lyrics without the melody is called a 作词人 'lyricist', distinguishing them strictly from the 作曲家 'composer'.
Examples in context
- 我找到了歌词，但是没法转贴过来。I found the lyrics, but I can't copy-paste them.This sentence shows how to express the difficulty of copy-pasting the 歌词.Tatoeba #8887774 by morningstar, translation #2592904 by WestofEden
- 如果你听外语歌，觉得曲调好听，但不懂歌词，那你不能说你喜欢这首歌，只能说喜欢它的曲调。If you listen to foreign language songs, feel tunes nice, but do not understand the lyrics, then you can not say you like this song, can only say that like the tune.This sentence illustrates the distinction between liking a song's tune and understanding its 歌词.Tatoeba #5546433 by verdastelo9604, translation #5549976 by verdastelo9604
- 这首歌的歌词非常感人。Zhè shǒu gē de gēcí fēicháng gǎnrén.The lyrics of this song are very touching.
Example conversation
Two friends are listening to music in a cafe.
- 雨婷 Yuting浩然，你知道这首歌的歌词吗？Hàorán, nǐ zhīdào zhè shǒu gē de gēcí ma?Haoran, do you know the lyrics to this song?
- 浩然 Haoran我不确定，我得查一下。Wǒ bù quèdìng, wǒ děi chá yīxià.I'm not sure, I need to look them up.
- 雨婷 Yuting我也想看看歌词的意思。Wǒ yě xiǎng kànkan gēcí de yìsi.I also want to see the meaning of the lyrics.
- 浩然 Haoran找到了，雨婷，你看。Zhǎodào le, Yǔtíng, nǐ kàn.Found them, Yuting, look.
Sources
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
