(gān) - to do, to work (colloquial) in Mandarin
gānTraditional: 幹
HSK 3
#298 of 5,000 Core 1000
Translation
to do, to work (colloquial)
Word origin
Originally a pictograph of a forked weapon or shield, 干 (gan) meant 'to offend, to shield against'. In modern colloquial use, written the same, it means 'to do, to work'; these verbal senses also carry the simplified form of 幹.
- Origin
- pictograph
- Root
- 干 (pictograph of a forked tool/shield)
Other proposed origins
- The colloquial verb 'to do, to work' also reflects 干 as the simplified form of 幹 (gan), which itself uses 干 as phonetic; the two characters have merged in writing. (幹 (gan), simplified to 干)
Stroke order
干
Examples
？
What kind of work do you do?
！
Well done!
。
I quit.
。
He downed a glass of wine.
。
The clothes aren't dry yet.
干 (gān) means to do, to work (colloquial). It is used as a verb in everyday Mandarin speech.
Appears in 7 words
Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 干.
Used in
Grammar articles
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