Chinese word

砸

Pronunciation

Pinyinzá

Meaning

  • verbbreak

Example

砸坏了我的手机。zá huài le wǒ de shǒu jī

My phone was broken.

Illustration for 砸 (break)

More examples

他用锤子把锁砸开了。tā yòng chuí zi bǎ suǒ zá kāi le

He smashed the lock open with a hammer.

Core concept

Force drives a hard object into something until the target cracks, breaks, or is crushed.

Common phrases

  • 砸碎zá suì

    smash to pieces

  • 砸坏zá huài

    break

  • 砸开zá kāi

    smash open

Similar words

打碎dǎ suì: Break something into small pieces by striking it hard.
弄坏nòng huài: Damage or break something through careless or rough handling.
摔坏shuāi huài: Break something by dropping it or letting it suffer a hard fall.
破坏pò huài: Cause lasting damage to an object, environment, or order, leaving it no longer as it was.

Definition in Chinese

用力打击或用重物压迫，使物体破裂或损坏。yòng lì dǎ jī huò yòng zhòng wù yā pò shǐ wù tǐ pò liè huò sǔn huài

Word origin

砸 (zá, "smash") is a phono-semantic character: 石 (shí, "stone") suggests a hard impact, while 匝 (zā, "go around") mainly supplies the sound.

Usage tips

  • In everyday speech, this verb often takes a result complement, so Chinese can package the action and its result in one compact verb phrase.

Other meanings

  • crushverb
  • smashverb

Opposites

Related words

  • 砸碎zá suìsmash to piecesverb
  • 砸坏zá huàibreakverb

Word lists with this word