请坐
qǐng zuò · HSK 1
Sitting
🪑 请 = please (speech radical 讠 + 青 qing); 坐 shows two 人 on 土 (earth)
请 qǐng asks politely — the 讠 speech radical plus 青 qīng gives the sound. 坐 zuò pictographically shows two people 人人 seated on the ground 土. Together: please sit.
请 — speech radical 讠 + 青 (qīng, blue/green)
请 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The speech radical 讠 (言) signals a meaning related to speaking, while 青 (qīng) supplies the sound. Originally it meant 'to ask' or 'request' through speech, and later extended to the polite 'please' and 'to invite'.
坐 — two 人 (people) + 土 (earth/ground)
Originally a pictograph showing two people sitting facing each other on the ground (土). The earth component indicates the location of sitting. The meaning later extended from 'to sit' to related senses like 'to be situated' or 'to take a seat'.