木头或许能在水里呆上十年,但它终究不可能变成一条鳄鱼。

Wood may remain ten years in the water, but it will never become a crocodile.

Source: Tatoeba

Sentence Composition

1 木头 tou
  1. slow-witted
  2. blockhead
  3. log (of wood, timber etc)

classifiers: ,

2 或许 huò perhaps; maybe
=3 Néng surname Neng
=3 néng
  1. can
  2. to be able to
  3. might possibly
  4. ability
  5. (physics) energy
=3 nài
  1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) alternative form of (“to bear; to withstand”)
  2. a surname
  3. alternative form of (“to bear; to withstand”)
=3 tái
  1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) alternative form of (“name of a Chinese constellation”)
  2. alternative form of (“name of a Chinese constellation”)
=3 tài
  1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) alternative form of / (tài, “bearing; apparition; form; shape; status; position”)
  2. alternative form of / (tài, “bearing; apparition; form; shape; status; position”)
=3 nái
  1. (obsolete) mythical three-legged soft-shelled turtle
  2. mythical three-legged soft-shelled turtle
=3 tāi
  1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) only used in 能始 (tāishǐ, “origin; root cause”)
  2. only used in 能始 (tāishǐ, “origin; root cause”)
=3 xióng
  1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) alternative form of (xióng, “bear”)
  2. alternative form of (xióng, “bear”)
4 zài
  1. to exist; to be alive
  2. (of sb or sth) to be (located) at
  3. (used before a verb to indicate an action in progress)
5 水里 Shuǐ Shuili Township in Nantou County 南投縣 Nántóu Xiàn, central Taiwan
=6 dāi
  1. foolish; stupid
  2. expressionless; blank
  3. variant of dāi
=6 dāi
  1. foolish; stupid (variant of dāi)
  2. expressionless; blank (variant of dāi)
=7 shǎng used in 上聲 shǎngshēng
=7 shàng
  1. (bound form) up; upper; above; previous
  2. first (of multiple parts)
  3. to climb; to get onto; to go up
  4. to attend (class or university)
  5. (directional complement) up
  6. (noun suffix) on; above
8 十年 shínián ten years; decade
9 dàn
  1. but; yet; however; still
  2. merely; only; just
=10 it
=10 it (pronoun for an animal)
=10 tuō
  1. alternative form of / (tuó)
  2. used in 它它藉藉它它借借
=10 only used in 它它
11 终究 zhōngjiū
  1. in the end
  2. after all is said and done
12 不可能 néng
  1. impossible
  2. cannot
  3. not able
13 变成 biànchéng
  1. to change into
  2. to turn into
  3. to become
14
  1. one
  2. single
  3. a (article)
  4. as soon as
  5. entire; whole; all; throughout
  6. "one" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 1)
  7. also pr. yāo for greater clarity when spelling out numbers digit by digit
15 tiáo
  1. strip
  2. item
  3. article
  4. clause (of law or treaty)
  5. classifier for long thin things (ribbon, river, road, trousers etc)
16 鳄鱼 è crocodilian (crocodile, alligator, gavial) (Classifier: m c; mn; mn)

classifier: