梨 (lí) · pear

Meanings

1 pear

About the ingredient

Chinese pears are crisp and very juicy, with slightly grainy flesh, unlike soft European pears. Eaten raw, or steamed or stewed into sweet soups, such as pear with snow fungus in autumn.

Also called 梨子

Characters

梨

lí

pear

Examples

HSK 3

秋天的梨特别甜。

Qiūtiān de lí tèbié tián.

Autumn pears are especially sweet.

HSK 5

这个梨很多汁。

Zhège lí hěnduō zhī.

This pear is very juicy.

HSK 7-9

冰糖炖梨可以治咳嗽。

Bīngtáng dùn lí kěyǐ zhì késou.

Steamed pear with rock sugar can cure a cough.

Tips

culture

In Chinese tradition, you should never split a pear with someone you care about, because 分梨 (split a pear) sounds exactly like 分离 (to separate). It is considered bad luck.

usage

冰糖炖梨 (rock sugar steamed pear) is a classic Chinese home remedy for coughs and sore throats.

Components

radical

木 mù

tree; wood

Bottom 木 is the tree radical, the indexing component - a stylized drawing of trunk plus branches and roots. Anchors 梨 in the tree-fruit family alongside 桃 peach, 杏 apricot, 李 plum, 柿 persimmon. The radical tells you immediately that 梨 names something that grows on a tree, with the phonetic narrowing it down to pear.

phonetic

利 lì

sharp; profit

Top 利 supplies the sound - lì shifting to lí, a regular tone movement. 利 is 禾 grain + 刂 knife, an iconic sharp-edge compound. Its semantic role here is faint but real: a pear is a crisp, juicy fruit that the teeth slice cleanly through. Same phonetic family: 犁 plow, 莉 jasmine, 痢 dysentery.