Example sentences

huíjiāle

I'm home.

huānyíngláijiā

Welcome to my home.

The story behind the character

家 literally means a pig under a roof. 宀 is the roof, 豕 is the pig. Not a pet, but your livelihood. In the earliest writing they drew it straight: a roof, a pig underneath. For ancient people, if you could keep a pig under your roof, you were settled. Every time you write this character, you're drawing a house with a pig in it.

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