部首radical (亻)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
价 splits cleanly into two parts: 价 = 亻 + 介. The left side 亻 is the standing-person radical, the form 人 (rén) takes when it leans against another component. The right side 介 (jiè) is the phonetic, carrying the sound that anchored the older reading. The structure says it plainly: worth is something a person sets, not a property the object holds on its own.
The character you see is a modern simplification of the fuller traditional form 價. There the phonetic was 賈 (jiǎ / gǔ), built on 貝 (bèi), the cowrie shell that served as China's earliest money and that sits inside nearly every word about commerce, debt, and trade. Shuōwén Jiězì glosses 價 under the merchant sense: the figure paid, the count of shells laid out across a table. The simplification dropped that heavy 賈 and reused 介, an older same-sound borrowing, leaving a lean six-stroke glyph.
Meaning extended outward from the marketplace. First the concrete number: the shells, the coins, the price spoken aloud over a stall. Then the abstraction: 价值 jiàzhí, the value of a person's labor, a sacrifice, an idea, things no one ever paid in cowries. The same falling-tone syllable that once meant the count on the counter now carries the worth of a human life.
Japanese kept the traditional skeleton in 価 (ka), seen in 価格 (kakaku, price) and 評価 (hyōka, appraisal), the very compounds Chinese builds with 价. Reading across the two scripts, the shared logic stays visible: a person, and a worth assigned in exchange.
价格jiàgéPrice: The Number on the Tag
价格jiàgéprice
N 名词 míngcí
价 (price) + 格 (a fixed standard, a slot). The settled, stated price of a good, the figure printed on the tag or quoted by the seller. The everyday word for what something costs.
这件大衣的价格太贵了。
Zhè jiàn dàyī de jiàgé tài guì le.
The price of this coat is too expensive.
最近房子的价格一直在涨。
Zuìjìn fángzi de jiàgé yìzhí zài zhǎng.
Lately housing prices have kept rising.
物价wùjiàcommodity prices, cost of living
N 名词 míngcí
物 (goods, things) + 价 (price). The general price level of everyday goods across a market or city. The word that shows up in talk of inflation and the cost of living.
辨析 biànxī · 物价 vs. 价格 价格 is the price of one specific thing; 物价 is the overall price level of goods in general, the macro picture.
降价jiàngjiàto cut the price, mark down
V/N 动名词 dòngmíngcí
降 (to lower) + 价 (price). To bring a price down, to discount. Its opposite is 涨价 (zhǎngjià), to raise the price. Both are verb-object compounds, so an amount can split them: 降了价.
这家店的手机降价了。
Zhè jiā diàn de shǒujī jiàngjià le.
The phones at this shop have dropped in price.
讨价还价tǎojià-huánjiàto haggle, bargain back and forth
V 动词 dòngcí
讨 (to ask for) + 价 (price), 还 (to give back) + 价 (price). One side names a price, the other counters; the four characters act out the rhythm of bargaining at a stall. Also used figuratively for any back-and-forth negotiation.
When shopping at the market you can haggle over the price.
价值jiàzhíWorth: Value & Judgment
价值jiàzhívalue, worth
N 名词 míngcí
价 (price) + 值 (to be worth). The abstract worth of a thing, an act, or an idea, far beyond any market figure. Carries the moral and intellectual sense, as in 价值观 (jiàzhíguān), a set of values.
这本书很有价值。
Zhè běn shū hěn yǒu jiàzhí.
This book is very valuable.
每个人的价值观都不一样。
Měi gè rén de jiàzhíguān dōu bù yíyàng.
Everyone's set of values is different.
辨析 biànxī · 价值 vs. 价格 价格 is the number you pay at the counter; 价值 is whether the thing was worth it. A cheap gift can have great 价值 and a small 价格.
评价píngjiàto appraise; an evaluation, review
V/N 动名词 dòngmíngcí
评 (to judge, comment) + 价 (worth). To weigh something and assign it a worth: a teacher's assessment, a customer's review, a verdict on a person's conduct. Works as both verb and noun.
代 (to stand in for, substitute) + 价 (price). The cost something exacts, not in money but in effort, sacrifice, or loss. You pay a 代价 for a mistake, a victory, or a hard choice.
他为了成功付出了很大的代价。
Tā wèile chénggōng fùchūle hěn dà de dàijià.
He paid a heavy price for his success.
成语chéngyǔIdioms & Set Phrases
物美价廉wù měi jià liánthe goods fine and the price cheap: excellent value for moneyThe four-character verdict every shopper hopes to pronounce: good quality and a low price at once. Standard praise in advertising and casual recommendation alike.
无价之宝wú jià zhī bǎoa treasure beyond price: a priceless thing无价 (without price) marks what no sum could buy. Used for a rare heirloom, a one-of-a-kind artwork, or, warmly, for a person or a friendship.
价值连城jià zhí lián chéngworth a string of cities: of immense valueFrom the Warring States tale of the 和氏璧 jade, which King Zhao of Qin offered fifteen cities to obtain. To be worth 连城 is to command a value beyond ordinary reckoning.
讨价还价tǎo jià huán jiàask a price, return a price: to haggle, bargainActs out the back-and-forth of the marketplace, one side naming a figure and the other countering. Extended to any drawn-out negotiation over terms.
记忆法 jìyìfǎ · Master Retention Image
Picture a single person, 亻, standing at a market stall, one hand resting on a wooden price-board: that board is 介, the phonetic, propped upright beside them. Nothing on the table has a worth until that person speaks. The vegetable, the bolt of cloth, the jade: each waits in silence until a human voice attaches a number. 价 is that moment, the person and the figure they name, frozen into six strokes.
Hold the split steady, 价 = 亻 + 介, and the whole word-family falls into place around it. Add 格, the slot, and you get the 价格 on the tag. Add 值, to be worth, and the number lifts off the table into 价值, the value of things money never bought. Stretch the haggle out and the same person calls 讨价还价 across the stall, price out, price back, until two voices meet.
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