Writing Balance Rule: The left radical (女) is narrower and compressed to make room for the right phonetic component (旦), which occupies more horizontal width and must stay balanced on the base line.
1. Meaning
older sister
polite address for an older female peer or young womanelder female cousin
NounNeutral#family#relationships#kinship
Sample Usage
我有一个姐姐。
wǒ yǒu yí gè jiě jie.
I have an older sister.
姐姐今天不在家。
jiě jie jīn tiān bú zài jiā.
My older sister is not home today.
2. Sound
/[t͡ɕi̯ɛ²¹⁴]/Tone: 214
姐
jiějie3
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++
ˇ(214)
=jiě
Initial Consonant
j
Type: Unaspirated Alveolo-Palatal
Sounds like: soft j sound as in 'jeep' produced far forward
Unaspirated
Airflow Tactile Test: No air puff. Lips spread wide like smiling.
Tongue & Mouth Position: Front of the tongue blade lightly touches or rests near the back of the lower teeth while the middle of the tongue rises toward the hard palate.
Final Rhyme
ie
Vowel Group: -e vowel group
Sounds like: rhymes with the 'ie' in 'pierce' combined with a dipping vowel sound
Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'yeh'.
Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.
Abbreviated Rhyme Rule: Starts with an 'i' palatal glide transitioning into 'ě'.
Tone
T3 (214)
2 → 1 → 4 (214)
3rd Tone (Low-Dipping)
Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 3 dips down and rises up, exactly like asking 'Really?' in English with deep disbelief and then rising inquiry.
Sandhi: When followed by another Tone 3 syllable, jiě shifts to a Tone 2 (rising 35) pitch.
👂
Listening trap: Often confused with jiē (first tone) or jié (second tone) by beginners who fail to drop the pitch low enough before rising.
👋
Physical Tone Gesture: Start at a medium height, dip down low into your chest, and sweep upward toward the ceiling, tracing a checkmark or 'V' shape in the air.
3. Writing
Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 8 strokes
Writing Balance Rule: The left radical (女) is narrower and compressed to make room for the right phonetic component (旦), which occupies more horizontal width and must stay balanced on the base line.
4. Components
Radical女 · Female Radical (woman, female)
Semantic Clue (形旁):女 (Indicates female gender or kinship relation.)
Phonetic Clue (声旁):旦 (original sound: dàn)
A woman (女) who starts her day early like the dawn (旦) to take care of everyone is your older sister (姐).
女 semantic clue for female / woman
旦 phonetic clue providing the sound framework
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
24· Phonetic Root: 且 (qiě)
5. History
Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)
Origin: Combined the female signific (女) with a phonetic sound provider (旦) to represent an elder female relative.
Semantic Evolution: Originally referred broadly to elder female family members, eventually specializing into the modern term for 'older sister'.
Kinship terms in Chinese are extremely specific, distinguishing older from younger and maternal from paternal branches.
6. Sinosphere
🇻🇳
Sino-Vietnamese
tỷ
The Sino-Vietnamese reading 'tỷ' corresponds to 'jiě', though in modern Mandarin the everyday word is jiějie.
🇯🇵
Kanji (Japanese)
On: シャ (sha)
🇰🇷
Hanja (Korean)
저
7. Memory
Vivid Mnemonic Story
Your older SISTER (姐) is a WOMAN (女) who wakes up at DAWN (旦) every single morning to help you get ready.
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
阻
zǔto block, stopUses the mound radical (阝) instead of female (女).
担
dānto carry, burdenUses the hand radical (扌) instead of female (女).
胆
dǎngallbladder, courageUses the flesh/meat radical (月) instead of female (女).
Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)
祖(zǔ)
祖 features the altar/spirit radical (礻) on the left for ancestors, whereas 姐 uses the woman radical (女).
8. Mastery
Active Recall Challenge
我和我的[___]一起去逛街。
Clue: jiě jie
Common Learner Pitfall
Forgetting to write the dot in the middle of the right-side component (旦) or misplacing the proportion of the left female radical.
Memory Prompts
Recognition: What does the character 姐 mean and how is it pronounced with tones?
Production: How do you write the character for 'older sister' using the female radical and dawn component?
Real-World Video Context
Watch authentic native speakers pronounce and explain this word in real-world YouTube videos.
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姐jiěolder sister
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