(gāi) - should, ought to (colloquial) in Mandarin
gāiTraditional: 該
Translation
should, ought to (colloquial)
Word origin
A phono-semantic compound: the 讠 'speech' radical and 亥 (hai) as phonetic. The character means 'ought to, should', and also 'the said, the aforementioned'.
- Origin
- phono-semantic compound
- Root
- 讠 (speech radical) + 亥 (hai, phonetic)
Stroke order
该
Examples
。
You should leave now.
。
It's your turn.
。
This should not have happened.
。
You should go to bed earlier.
轮。
Now it's my turn.
该 (gāi) means should, ought to (colloquial). It is used as a verb in everyday Mandarin speech.
Where this fits
Appears in 3 words
Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 该.
Used in
Grammar articles
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该: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "该" (should, ought to (colloquial)): 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 4.