The Chinese word 刷牙 (shuāyá), meaning "to brush teeth", is a straightforward verb-object compound formed by combining the verb 刷 (shuā), meaning "to brush" or "to scrub", with the noun 牙 (yá), meaning "tooth" or "teeth". This construction directly and logically represents the action (刷) performed upon its object (牙), following a common syntactic pattern in Chinese where a verb and its nominal target are combined to create a specific activity term. Thus, the word's formation is transparent, reflecting the basic action of cleaning one's teeth.