慢慢来
màn màn lái · HSK 7
take your time
🐢 慢 = slow, 来 = come; doubled 慢慢 means slowly-slowly, so slow-slow-come = take your time
慢 (màn) is slow and 来 (lái) is come. Chinese doubles an adjective for emphasis, so 慢慢 is very-slowly. Literally slow-slow-come, used to tell someone there is no rush.
慢 — heart radical 忄 + 曼 màn (phonetic)
慢 is a phonetic-semantic compound. The heart radical 忄 signals a feeling or mental state, while 曼 supplies the sound màn. Originally it meant 'lazy' or 'negligent,' a slack state of mind, and later shifted to its modern sense of 'slow.'
慢 — heart radical 忄 + 曼 màn (phonetic)
慢 is a phonetic-semantic compound. The heart radical 忄 signals a feeling or mental state, while 曼 supplies the sound màn. Originally it meant 'lazy' or 'negligent,' a slack state of mind, and later shifted to its modern sense of 'slow.'
来 — pictograph of a wheat plant with grain heads
来 originally depicted a stalk of wheat with drooping grain heads, and meant 'wheat' in oracle bone script. It was later borrowed phonetically to write the unrelated verb 'to come,' which became its dominant meaning. The original 'wheat' sense was taken over by 麥 (now 麦).