noun HSK 2
bowl
Meaning
碗 refers to a bowl, the common rounded dish used for eating rice, soup, noodles, and other foods in Chinese cuisine. It is one of the most fundamental utensils in daily Chinese life and appears constantly in conversation about meals.
Usage
This is an everyday word used by all speakers. Chinese meals typically involve personal rice bowls (饭碗) and soup bowls (汤碗). The word appears frequently in restaurant settings, home cooking discussions, and idiomatic expressions about livelihood (饭碗 means 'rice bowl' but also 'job' or 'livelihood').
Examples
- 01请给我一个碗。.Please give me a bowl.
- 02吃完饭以后要洗碗。.You need to wash the bowls after eating.
Measure words
- 个一个碗
- 只两只碗
Common collocations
- 饭碗rice bowl; job, livelihood
- 汤碗soup bowl
- 洗碗to wash dishes
- 打破碗to break a bowl
Origin
The character 碗 contains the radical 石 (stone) on the left, indicating the material bowls were historically made from, combined with the phonetic component 宛.