ZHIZHI 知止 · LEARN CHINESE DAILY
歌

song

gē
14 strokes · 哥 (elder brother, sound gē) + 欠 (open mouth exhaling) · HSK 2

What 歌 is made of

哥 + 欠 = 歌
哥older brother gē
欠to owe; to lack; to yawn qiàn

Where 歌 comes from

欠 draws a person with mouth open, breath flowing out — the radical of yawns, sighs, and songs. 哥 supplies the sound. A song is literally 'the gē that comes out on your breath'.

歌 in Chinese culture

From the 诗经 Book of Songs — folk lyrics collected three thousand years ago — to 国歌 the national anthem, 歌 has always been how Chinese collective memory travels. Mountain folk duets (山歌) were dating apps before phones: villages courted by singing across valleys.

Example

歌手 gēshǒu — singer

这首歌很好听。
Zhè shǒu gē hěn hǎotīng.
This song is beautiful.

How to remember it

Big brother 哥 with his mouth open 欠 — always ready with a SONG.

The measure word for songs is 首 shǒu — 'head'. 一首歌 = one 'head' of song, the same measure word used for poems.

Same sound, different tones

歌
1st gē
song
格
2nd gé
pattern
舸
3rd gě
barge
个
4th gè
(measure word)

Words unlocked by 歌

唱歌 chànggē
to sing
歌手 gēshǒu
singer

Related characters

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One character a morning · 455-character HSK library · iOS