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# 7 Character combination and word formation

So far this week you haven’t been introduced to much new vocabulary. Activity 6 will rectify this by introducing you to some new phrases, but before working out the meaning of these, below is a list of compound words which will already be familiar to you.

- shòu 瘦 (thin) + xiǎo 小 (small) → shòuxiǎo 瘦小 (thin and small)

- gāo 高(tall) + dà 大 (big) → gāodà 高大 (big and tall)

- duō 多(many) + jiǔ 久 (long time) → duōjiǔ 多久 (how long )

Have you learned any other compound words recently? Perhaps you can summarise them in your language notebook.

## Activity 6

hǎo piàoliang 好漂亮， míngtiān jiàn 明天见，tài hǎole 太好了, hěnjiǔ 很久

What do think these phrases mean? Take a guess and check the answers below. Feel free to use dictionaries and other tools.

### Answer

hǎo piàoliang 好漂亮, very beautiful

míngtiān jiàn 明天见, see you tomorrow

tài hǎo le 太好了, wonderful

hěnjiǔ 很久, long period of time

◄Contents►Next: 8 This week’s quiz

OpenLearn - Getting started with Chinese 3
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