水果

水果 (shuǐguǒ) is the Chinese word for 'fruit' — the edible, sweet, juicy kind. The characters literally read 'water-fruit,' contrasting with 干果 (gānguǒ, 'dry fruit / nuts') such as walnuts and almonds. Chinese supermarkets, restaurants, and convenience stores will use 水果 to label apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, watermelon, mangoes, and so on. Two notes for learners: first, 水果 is a non-count category noun in Chinese; to count individual pieces you use the fruit's specific measure word (一个苹果 'an apple,' 一串葡萄 'a bunch of grapes'), not 一个水果. Second, 'a fruit shop' is 水果店 (shuǐguǒ diàn), and after dinner many Chinese families serve fresh fruit instead of dessert — it's the standard 饭后水果 'post-meal fruit.'

Memory hook: 水 (water) + 果 (fruit) — the 'watery / juicy' fruits, in contrast to dry nuts.