Meaning of 母子
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- mother and child
- parent and subsidiary (companies)
- principal and interest
How to use 母子
母子 most often describes a mother and her child, especially a son, as a pair. In business it can mean parent and subsidiary, as in 母子公司 (mǔzǐ gōngsī), and in finance it can mean principal and interest. Example: 母子平安。(Mǔzǐ píng'ān.) Mother and baby are both safe.
母 (mǔ) means mother, and 子 (zǐ) means child, so 母子 is simply mother and child side by side. Picture a mother holding her child, then stretch the image to a big company holding a smaller one.
Common mistake: Learners often read 子 here with the neutral tone, as in 孩子 (háizi) or 桌子 (zhuōzi), but in 母子 it keeps its full third tone: mǔzǐ. Also, 子 here is a real word meaning child, not the empty noun suffix found in 杯子 (bēizi) or 包子 (bāozi).
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
母 mǔ · mother · 5 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
子 zi · noun suffix · 3 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
Related words
Words that share a character with 母子.
Questions about 母子
What does 母子 mean?
母子 (mǔzǐ) means "mother and child; parent and subsidiary (companies)" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 母子?
母子 is made of 2 characters: 母 (5 strokes), 子 (3 strokes). That is 8 strokes in total.
Is 母子 an HSK word?
Yes. 母子 is on the HSK 6 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
Does 母子 only mean mother and son?
It usually refers to a mother and son, or to a mother and newborn baby whose sex is not the point. For a mother and daughter, Chinese normally uses 母女 (mǔnǚ).
How do you pronounce two third tones in mǔzǐ?
When two third tones come together, the first one changes to a rising second tone. So 母子 sounds like múzǐ in natural speech, even though it is written mǔzǐ.