供 (gòng): to lay (sacrificial offerings);…

Meanings

1 to lay (sacrificial offerings); to make offerings to
2 offerings (to gods or ancestors)
3 to confess
4 confession; statement (in court or to police)

Characters

供

gòng

to lay (sacrificial offerings); to make offerings to

Examples

HSK 6

嫌犯在审讯中供认了所有罪行。

Xiánfàn zài shěnxùn zhōng gòngrèn le suǒyǒu zuìxíng.

Under interrogation the suspect confessed everything.

HSK 6

他的口供在法庭上被用作证据。

Tā de kǒugòng zài fǎtíng shàng bèi yòng zuò zhèngjù.

His oral confession was used as evidence in court.

HSK 7-9

祖宗牌位前供着新鲜水果。

Zǔzōng páiwèi qián gòng zhe xīnxiān shuǐguǒ.

An offering of fresh fruit is laid before the ancestral tablet.

Tips

usage

gòng splits into two clean semantic clusters: ritual offering - 供奉 (to enshrine), 供品 (offering), 上供 (to make offerings) - and legal confession - 口供 (oral testimony), 招供 (to confess), 供词 (statement), 翻供 (to retract a confession). For 'to supply / provide', switch to the gōng reading.

memory

Both gòng senses share the idea of 'placing something before someone in authority' - offerings laid before a god or ancestors, testimony laid before a magistrate. The 亻 on the left is the petitioner or suspect; 共 on the right is the formal joint act of presenting.

Components

radical

亻 rén

person (radical form)

Left indexing person-variant 亻 - anchors 供 as a person-to-person action: a provider supplying someone else, or (in the gòng reading) a worshipper offering to a deity. The human element is essential to both readings of the character.

phonetic

共 gòng

together; shared

Right component 共 - supplies the sound (gòng matches the gòng reading; gōng is just a tone shift) AND a perfect bonus meaning: together, shared. Supplying and offering both involve sharing what is yours with another. 共 itself depicts two hands holding up an object jointly.