岁 from HSK Level 1 Vocabulary List

The Chinese character 岁 (suì) for "year" is composed of two parts: the radical 禾 (hé) and the phonetic component 委 (wěi). The radical 禾 represents plants or crops, and the phonetic component 委 suggests the pronunciation of the character.The original form of 岁 was 禾, which was a pictograph of a plant with a head. In ancient China, people used plants to record the passage of time, and the character 禾 was used to represent a year. Later, the character 委 was added to the right side of 禾 to indicate the pronunciation of the character.The character 岁 has several meanings in Chinese. It can mean "year", "age", or "time". It can also be used in the sense of "harvest" or "abundance". For example, the phrase 五谷丰登 (wǔ gǔ fēng dēng) means "a good harvest", and the phrase 岁月静好 (suì yuè jìng hǎo) means "time is peaceful and美好".The character 岁 is also used in many Chinese idioms and proverbs. For example, the idiom 一年之计在于春 (yī nián zhī jì zài yú chūn) means "a year's plan starts in spring", and the proverb 光阴似箭，日月如梭 (guāng yīn sì jiàn, rì yuè rú suō) means "time flies like an arrow, and the sun and moon pass like a shuttle".The character 岁 is an important character in Chinese, and it has a rich history and many meanings. It is a character that is worth learning for any HSK learner.