桃 táo peach
How to remember 桃: 木 tree + 兆 omen = peach. The first blossom on Grandma's tree is a good omen, she says, and by summer the kids are eating their first peach.
Component breakdown
桃 = 木 tree + 兆 omen
- 木 tree
- 兆 omen
The first blossom on Grandma's tree is a good omen, she says, and by summer the kids are eating their first peach.
How it is used
- Half-bound: the fruit is usually 桃子 táozi in speech, though 桃 alone appears freely in compounds.
- 核桃 hétao (walnut, note the neutral-tone reading) is the one fruit word that doesn't contain 桃zi and is worth memorizing separately.
- 桃花 táohuā "peach blossom" carries a cultural association with romance and luck - 桃花运 táohuāyùn means "luck in love/romantic fortune", a common idiom in casual talk about someone's love life.