水果
fruit
shuǐguǒ
What does 水果 mean?
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.'
Character breakdown
water
fruit; result
Memory hook: 水 (water) + 果 (fruit) — the 'watery / juicy' fruits, in contrast to dry nuts.
Measure word for 水果
Example sentences
我每天都吃水果。
Wǒ měitiān dōu chī shuǐguǒ.
I eat fruit every day.
neutral
你喜欢什么水果？
Nǐ xǐhuan shénme shuǐguǒ?
What fruit do you like?
spoken
市场上的水果很新鲜。
Shìchǎng shàng de shuǐguǒ hěn xīnxiān.
The fruit at the market is very fresh.
neutral
妈妈去水果店买苹果。
Māma qù shuǐguǒ diàn mǎi píngguǒ.
Mom is going to the fruit shop to buy apples.
neutral
Common phrases with 水果
Hear it in real Fluentide episodes
水果 appears in 1 podcast episode at natural native speed, with full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
Don't confuse 水果 with
果子 also means 'fruit,' but it's regional / colloquial and can include nuts and dried snacks in some northern dialects. 水果 is the standard modern word.
果汁 is 'fruit juice,' not the fruit itself. 喝果汁 'drink juice' vs 吃水果 'eat fruit.'
蔬菜 means 'vegetables.' A common pair on menus: 水果 + 蔬菜.
FAQ
Related words from the same episodes
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