Example sentences
píng苹guǒ果duō多shǎo少qián钱yī一jīn斤？
How much are apples per jin?
zhè这píng苹guǒ果hěn很tián甜。
These apples are sweet.
About this word
苹 carries only the sound píng and means nothing on its own in modern Chinese, while 果 means "fruit". So 苹果 is a sound plus "fruit", which is why the 果 half reappears in 水果, 果汁 and 果树 while the 苹 half appears nowhere else. The word is an old borrowing rather than a native coinage; it is usually traced to 频婆果, a Buddhist-era transliteration of Sanskrit bimba that was later simplified. The practical upshot is that 苹果 has to be memorized as one unit, the way English keeps "pineapple" in one piece.
The story behind the character
苹
艹 (grass) plus 平 (sound). It was a kind of water plant, and only later got used for the apple.
果
田 on top (really the shape of a fruit) over 木 (tree). Fruit on a tree. Xu Shen wrote 果, 木实也: "the fruit of the tree." What grows on a tree is fruit. Plain enough to need no comment.