悄 qiāo quiet
quiet; silent; still
怎么记住“悄”: 忄 heart + 肖 resemble = quiet. Father and son, who resemble each other so much, tiptoe past the sleeping baby with pounding hearts, perfectly quiet.
部件结构
形声 · Meaning + sound
One part gives the meaning, the other gives the sound.
悄 = 忄 heart + 肖 resemble
- 忄 heart meaning
- 肖 resemble sound
Father and son, who resemble each other so much, tiptoe past the sleeping baby with pounding hearts, perfectly quiet.
How it came to be
The heart on the left gives the meaning and the right part gives the sound.
用法
- 悄 mainly appears reduplicated as 悄悄 (qiāoqiāo), an adverb meaning quietly/secretly, describing an action done without drawing attention.
- 他悄悄地走了 (tā qiāoqiāo de zǒu le): he left quietly/secretly, without anyone noticing.
- With a different reading, qiǎo, it appears in the more literary/melancholic 悄然 (qiǎorán), "quietly, imperceptibly": used in writing more than speech.
- Rarely stands alone as a single-character word in conversation.