sōu

classifier for ships

Taiwan pr. [sao1]

boat (舟) + sound (叟) = counter for ships

舟 anchors the meaning squarely in the world of boats and vessels. 叟 (old man) contributes the rough sound sōu and nothing more semantically.

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Old manPhonetic
BoatSemantic

河里停着一小船。

hé lǐ tíng zhe yī sōu xiǎo chuán。

A small boat is moored in the river.

港口里有三大船在等待出发。

gǎng kǒu lǐ yǒu sān sōu dà chuán zài děng dài chū fā。

In the harbor there are three large ships waiting to depart.

More characters with 舟