电话
diànhuà · HSK 1
telephone
📞 电话 = 电 (electric) + 话 (speech) — electric speech
电 means electricity and 话 means speech or talk, so 电话 literally combines into electric speech — the standard Chinese word for telephone. The same 电 appears in 电视 (electric vision = TV) and 电脑 (electric brain = computer).
电 — rain 雨 + lightning tail 电
Originally a pictograph of lightning streaking from a cloud, written 電 with the rain radical 雨 on top. The bottom 电 depicts the zigzag flash itself. The simplified form 电 drops 雨 and keeps just the lightning shape. Meaning extended from 'lightning' to 'electricity' in modern usage.
话 — speech radical 讠 (言) + tongue 舌
话 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 讠 (simplified from 言, 'speech') gives the meaning, signaling something said, while 舌 ('tongue') hints at the sound and reinforces the speaking sense. The traditional form 話 makes the 言 element explicit; today 话 means 'speech, talk, words.'
diàn huà · HSK 1
telephone
📞 电话 = electric (电) + speech (话)
电 means electricity (as in 电脑 electric-brain = computer); 话 means speech or talk. Together: electric speech = telephone. The same 电 shows up in many modern tech compounds.
电 — rain 雨 + lightning tail 电
Originally a pictograph of lightning streaking from a cloud, written 電 with the rain radical 雨 on top. The bottom 电 depicts the zigzag flash itself. The simplified form 电 drops 雨 and keeps just the lightning shape. Meaning extended from 'lightning' to 'electricity' in modern usage.
话 — speech radical 讠 (言) + tongue 舌
话 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 讠 (simplified from 言, 'speech') gives the meaning, signaling something said, while 舌 ('tongue') hints at the sound and reinforces the speaking sense. The traditional form 話 makes the 言 element explicit; today 话 means 'speech, talk, words.'