The character 鸽子 (gēzi, meaning "pigeon" or "dove") is formed through a combination of semantic and phonetic clues. The left half of the main character, 鸽, is composed of 合 (hé, meaning "to combine" or "together") which primarily provides a hint to its pronunciation, while the right component 鸟 (niǎo, meaning "bird") clearly indicates the meaning category. The 子 (zi) suffix is a very common, neutral noun-ending particle in Chinese. Thus, the word visually constructs the concept of a specific type of bird through one part suggesting sound and another indicating category, with a standard suffix attached to form the everyday spoken term.