哥

gē
noun #1,528

Meanings

  1. 1 elder brother
  2. 2 respectful address for an older male

Characters

Two 可 stacked - the one who can do more, the elder.

Examples

HSK 1
Tā shì wǒ gēge.
He is my older brother.
HSK 2
Gē, nǐ bāngbang wǒ ba.
Bro, can you help me?
HSK 4
帅哥,你好!
Shuàigē, nǐhǎo!
Hey handsome!

Tips

usage
哥 is used in: 哥哥 (older brother), 帅哥 (handsome guy - casual address), 大哥 (big brother / boss). It can also be used as an affectionate term for older males who are not relatives. It appears in place names: 芝加哥 (Chicago), 墨西哥 (Mexico).

Components

phonetic
可 kě
can; able (here phonetic, top instance)
Top 可 supplies the sound (kě → gē, k/g alternation, also seen in 歌). The doubled 'can' image was later folk-read as 'the older one who can do twice as much', though the doubling is mostly phonetic emphasis. Filed under Kangxi #30 口 - the mouth radical embedded inside each 可.
semantic
可 kě
can; able (bottom instance)
Bottom 可 - pairs with the top to embody phonetic doubling. The radical 口 (mouth) sits inside each 可, anchoring 哥 under the mouth / speech category in dictionaries. The full character then reads as a stacked double-可 - visually balanced, phonetically emphatic.

Filed under radical 口 (kǒu, #30) by convention. 口 is not a separate component in 哥, so no strokes are highlighted.

Stroke Order

哥 gē