蝴蝶

hú dié

butterfly

CL:隻|只[zhi1]

used in 蝴蝶[hu2 die2]

dié

variant of 蝶[die2]

insect (虫) + insect (虫) = butterfly, said twice for the flutter

Both characters carry the insect radical 虫, doubling down on the creature's nature. The remaining parts, 胡 and 枼, are purely phonetic — they give the sounds hú and dié, not the meaning.

花园里飞来了一只蝴蝶

huā yuán lǐ fēi lái le yī zhī hú dié。

A butterfly flew into the garden.

那只蝴蝶的翅膀颜色很漂亮。

nà zhī hú dié de chì bǎng yán sè hěn piào liàng。

The wings of that butterfly are very beautiful in color.