得不偿失 débùchángshī

HSK level

Traditional form

得不償失

Part of speech

Idiom / 成语 chéngyǔ Chéngyǔ

得 dé

Type

ideographic

Explanation

Originally written as 㝵 dé . Depicts a hand (寸 cùn ) grabbing a shell (貝 bèi ), used as currency in ancient China, to convey the meaning "get". The 彳 chì (movement) component was added later.

Positional decomposition

⿰彳 chì ⿱旦寸

Number of Strokes

不 bù

Type

ideographic

Explanation

Pictograph of sepals of a flower. The meaning "no" is a phonetic loan.

Positional decomposition

⿱一 yī ？

Number of Strokes

偿 cháng

Type

pictophonetic

Explanation

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 rén represents the meaning and 尝 cháng represents the sound. Simplified form of 償 cháng .

Phonetic compound

尝 cháng

Semantic compound

亻 rén

Positional decomposition

⿰亻尝

Number of Strokes

失 shī

Type

ideographic

Explanation

Pictograph of something falling out of the hand.

Positional decomposition

⿻丿夫

Number of Strokes

Practice your Chinese writing skills and learn precisely where and when to draw every stroke of the
Chinese word 得不偿失 débùchángshī .
Press the Show Strokes button to see the strokes and their order and hit Start Drawing when you are
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得不偿失