鸭 (yā) · duck

Meanings

1 duck

About the ingredient

Rich, fatty meat. Roasted, braised or salt-cured; necks, wings and tongues are sold on their own as spicy braised snacks, and duck blood goes into hotpot and soup.

Also called 鸭子、鸭肉

Used in 12 dishes

笋干老鸭煲 sǔngān lǎoyābāo

虫草炖老鸭 chóngcǎo dùn lǎoyā

老鸭煲 lǎoyābāo

Examples

HSK 3

奶奶养了几只鸭子。

Nǎinai yǎng le jǐ zhī yāzi.

Grandma keeps a few ducks.

HSK 4

这家店的烤鸭很好吃。

Zhè jiā diàn de kǎoyā hěn hǎochī.

The roast duck at this restaurant is delicious.

Tips

memory

甲 (shell/first) + 鸟 (bird) - 北京烤鸭 (Peking duck) is a must-try

Components

radical

鸟 niǎo

bird

Indexing bird radical on the right (simplified from 鳥). Declares 鸭 a kind of bird. Same family as 鸡 (chicken), 鹅 (goose), 鸽 (pigeon), 鹰 (eagle). The bird radical is what makes 鸭 unambiguously duck rather than an unrelated jiǎ-syllable.

phonetic

甲 jiǎ

shell; armour; first heavenly stem

Left 甲 supplies the sound (jiǎ to yā - palatal drop in Mandarin; both share the same Old Chinese velar onset cluster). 甲 itself depicts a turtle plastron or armour; here purely phonetic. Same phonetic in 押 (yā, pledge), 闸 (zhá, sluice gate).