部首radical (阝)部件component (rest of character)书写your drawing
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字源zìyuánEtymology & Structure
字源洞见 zìyuán dòngjiàn · Etymological Insight
队 = 阝 + 人. On the left stands 阝, the mound radical (also called 左耳旁, the left-ear), which in characters of place and terrain pictures a stepped slope of packed earth. On the right stands 人, a person seen in profile. The simplified glyph compresses an older, busier picture into these two strokes-worth of meaning: a body of people gathered against rising ground.
The traditional form is 隊, where the right side carries 㒸 over a fuller phonetic-semantic load. Shuōwén glosses 隊 as 从高隊也, a falling from a height, and the graph's first life was the verb 墜 (zhuì), to plummet down a slope. The mound supplied the height; people or things tumbling from it supplied the action. That sense of bodies moving together down and along terrain is the hinge.
From a mass of people pouring along the foot of a rampart, the meaning settled on the people themselves once they are formed up: a column, a band, a unit of soldiers marching in order. The fall became the formation. By the time the word reaches everyday Mandarin, 队 names any organized group of humans, a 球队 (qiúduì) on the field or a 排队 (páiduì) line at the bank, and works as the measure word for such ranks: 一队士兵 (yī duì shìbīng), one column of soldiers.
Japanese keeps the traditional 隊 in 部隊 (butai), a military unit, and 自衛隊 (jieitai), the Self-Defense Forces, preserving the martial weight that Mandarin has softened into sports clubs and queues.
队列duìlièFormed Ranks & Lines
队伍duìwǔranks, procession, contingent
N 名词 míngcí
队 (formed group) + 伍 (a file of five soldiers, the old squad). The pairing names a body of people standing or moving in order, from a literal military column to a figurative workforce or movement.
游行的队伍排了好几公里。
Yóuxíng de duìwǔ pái le hǎojǐ gōnglǐ.
The procession stretched on for several kilometers.
Yuèláiyuè duō niánqīngrén jiārù le chuàngyè de duìwǔ.
More and more young people are joining the ranks of entrepreneurs.
辨析 biànxī · 队伍 vs. 团队队伍 stresses people lined up or massed in order; 团队 (tuánduì) stresses a tight working unit defined by shared goals, like a project team.
排队páiduìto line up, to queue
V/N 动名 dòngmíng
排 (to arrange in a row) + 队 (a formed line). The verb every visitor learns first: to stand one behind another and wait your turn.
请大家排队上车，不要拥挤。
Qǐng dàjiā páiduì shàng chē, búyào yōngjǐ.
Please line up to board, do not push.
为了买到票，他排了三个小时的队。
Wèile mǎidào piào, tā pái le sān ge xiǎoshí de duì.
To get a ticket, he queued for three hours.
辨析 biànxī · 离合词 líhécí排队 is a separable verb-object: time and measure words slot between the two halves, as in 排了三个小时的队.
队形duìxíngformation, marching shape
N 名词 míngcí
队 (formed group) + 形 (shape). The geometric pattern a group holds while moving: a wedge of soldiers, a flying V of geese, a defensive line on the pitch.
大雁排成人字形的队形向南飞。
Dàyàn pái chéng rénzìxíng de duìxíng xiàng nán fēi.
The wild geese flew south in a 人-shaped formation.
队组duìzǔNamed Teams & Squads
球队qiúduìsports team (ball game)
N 名词 míngcí
球 (ball) + 队 (team). Any club built around a ball sport: football, basketball, volleyball. Swap the first character for the sport's tool.
队 as a measure word counts people or animals moving in a formed line: a column of soldiers, a string of camels, a file of schoolchildren.
远处走来一队骆驼。
Yuǎnchù zǒulái yí duì luòtuó.
A train of camels came walking from afar.
队员duìyuánteam member, squad member
N 名词 míngcí
队 (team) + 员 (member, a person filling a role). Any rank-and-file member of a team: a player, a scout, a rescue worker.
每位队员都拼尽了全力。
Měi wèi duìyuán dōu pīnjìn le quánlì.
Every team member gave it everything.
成语chéngyǔIdioms & Set Phrases
成群结队chéng qún jié duìto form crowds and bands: in droves, in flocksThe most common 队 idiom in daily speech. Pictures people or animals gathering thick enough to clump into groups and lines. Used for crowds streaming somewhere: 游客成群结队地涌入古镇.
排兵布队pái bīng bù duìto arrange soldiers and deploy units: to marshal forcesA military set phrase, sibling to 排兵布阵. Describes a commander laying out troops in formation; now applied to organizing a team or lineup before a contest or launch.
削尖脑袋往里钻xuē jiān nǎodai wǎng lǐ zuānto sharpen one's head and bore in: to push to the front of the queueA colloquial saying, not a classical 成语, paired here with 加塞儿 (jiāsāir, to cut the line). Mentioned to contrast the orderly 排队 ideal with the elbows-out reality of a crowded queue.
记忆法 jìyìfǎ · Master Retention Image
See a high earthen rampart at dawn, the kind that ringed an old Chinese town. The mound radical 阝 is that wall, stepped and packed solid against the left edge of the character. Now a single soldier 人 stands at its foot on the right, and behind him, out of frame, a whole column waits to fall in. One person against a mound: the seed of a team.
Hold that picture and the compounds line up behind it like ranks. 排队 (páiduì) sets the people single file along the wall to wait. 队长 (duìzhǎng) puts a captain at the head of the column. 球队 (qiúduì) trades the spears for a ball and marches them onto a pitch. The mound never moves; only what gathers against it changes.
When you reach for the measure word, hear the boots: 一队骆驼 (yí duì luòtuó), one file of camels strung out along the slope. 队 is always a body of bodies in order, the crowd 人 disciplined by the wall 阝 into a line.
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