(duì kàng) - to confront, to resist, to stand against in Mandarin
duìkàngTraditional: 對抗
Translation
to confront, to resist, to stand against
Word origin
A compound of 对 (duì, facing, opposite) and 抗 (kàng, to resist), whose character joins 扌, the hand radical, to 亢 as the phonetic.
- Origin
- compound
- Root
- 对 (duì, facing) + 抗 (kàng, to resist)
Stroke order
对
抗
Examples
。
A small country finds it hard to stand up to a large one.
。
Our bodies have been fighting this illness all along.
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Those two teams are up against each other again tonight.
，。
He chose to fight back rather than fall into line.
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Those two forces pull against each other inside him.
对抗 (duì kàng) is squaring up. Two sides face each other and neither gives ground: armies, teams, immune systems and viruses, a person and the pressure being put on them. The 对 is doing real work, because the opposition here is head on rather than sideways.
It doubles as a noun. 一场对抗 is a confrontation, 对抗赛 is a head-to-head fixture, and 对抗性 describes anything adversarial. As a verb it takes the opponent straight after it, with no preposition: 对抗政府, 对抗病毒.
The trap is strength. Learners reach for 对抗 whenever they mean "oppose", but ordinary disagreement is 反对: you 反对 a proposal at a meeting, you 对抗 an occupying army. Using 对抗 for a mild objection turns a raised eyebrow into a declaration of war.
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对抗: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "对抗" (to confront, to resist, to stand against): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 57.