Chinlingo Chinese words: 红花 and 绿叶

Summer has arrived, painting a vivid green picture. Among the clusters of leaves, have your eyes been caught by the blooming flowers? With the dazzling colors and the overwhelming fragrance, the flowers stand out against the background of green leaves. If we imagine a vigorous plant as a stage, then the flowers act as the leading role while the green leaves act as  the supporting roles. Only when the leading role and the supporting roles set off against each other, can you get a feast of eyes?

夏天来了，带来了一片新绿。在丛丛的叶儿中，你的视觉是不是最先被娇艳的花儿占据？花儿的色彩炫目，芬芳扑鼻，它们在叶子的承托下显得别具一格。如果生命力旺盛的植物是一座大舞台，那么，花儿就是主角。绿叶则是配角了。它们相互映衬搭配，才能给你上演视觉大戏。

In Chinese, "叶儿" (yèr, leaf) and "花儿" (huār, flower) are collocated together rhetorically to show their linguistic charm. There is an old saying in Chinese, "红花还须绿叶扶" (hónɡ huā hái xū lǜ yè fú), which means that a red flower will fail to stand out without the contrasting background of green leaves. "红花" (hónɡ huā) and "绿叶" (lǜ yè) are words of the same structure. Both "花" and "叶" are nouns of things and can be modified by words of different colors. However, "红" and "绿" are believed by Chinese people to be remarkably contrasting colors. When put in the same sentence, "红花" and "绿叶" set each other off for a stronger rhetorical effect.

在汉语里，叶儿（yèr）和花儿（huār）的搭配是通过修辞的手法来展现其语言的魅力的。汉语里有句俗话："红花还须绿叶扶（hónɡ huā hái xū lǜ yè fú+翻译）"。意思是说"没有绿叶的衬托，红花也难以展现它的美丽"。句子中的红花（hónɡ huā）、绿叶（lǜ yè）的词语结构相同。"花"、"叶"都是事物的名称，前面可使用各种色彩进行修饰。但是，"红"和"绿"被中国人认为是强烈的对比色，因此，将"红花"和"绿叶"放在同一个句子里互相映衬，增强修辞的效果。

If you study the word-building principles when learning Chinese words, you will memorize them quickly and know more words. In addition, it is a good way to memorize words by putting them in specific sentences. A sentence just serves as a simplified context, which helps you to learn about the correct usage, attributes and meanings of words.

当你在学习汉语词汇的时候，如果能从其构词原理入手，则能更快的记忆，也能拓展出更多的词汇。另外，把词汇融合在句子中学习也是你巩固词语的好方法。一个句子相当于一个微小的语境，在语境中学习词语才能操练出该词语的正确用法，才能更好的理解词语的属性和意义。

Although the sentence "红花还须绿叶扶" is rather difficult to a Chinese beginner grammatically, it helps you to memorize the words "红花" and "绿叶". The English translation offers a rough understanding of its meaning, while Chinlingo's explanation of "红花" and "绿叶" wording principle has presented opportunities for you make up your own sentences which you are welcome to share with us. 

尽管"红花还须绿叶扶"这个句子，对于汉语初学者来说是难度很高的语法。但是，这个句子仅是帮助你记忆 "红花"和"绿叶"这两个词的。至于整句，你能通过英语翻译了解其句意即可。不必深究居中其它汉字或者语法现象。在第二段中，Chinlingo也把"红花"和"绿叶"的造词原理解释清楚了，拓展词汇的任务就留给你来完成吧！组出了新词记得分享给我们哦。

The article is translated and editted by Chinlingo. Please indicate the source for any use, reproduction or transfer. 

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