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Pinyin | xīng qī(first tone) |
| English | Weekday | |
| A difficult one 'hsing' 'tchee' is somewhat like it but no close equivalent exists | ||
Yes, we have cheated and given an example of a 'word' made up of two distinct Chinese characters. This serves as an example of how all but the simplest words are built up - they are made from two or more simpler characters usually with some symbolic or phonetic relationship as to the 'word' they are part. In this case 'xing' means 'star' and 'qi' means 'stage or phase' and therefore ties the meaning to astronomy and the daily cycle of rotation.
| xīng qī | èr | |
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| weekday | two | = Tuesday |