够 (gòu): enough

Meanings

1 enough
2 sufficient

Characters

够

gòu

enough; sufficient

Examples

钱够不够？

Qián gòu bu gòu?

Is the money enough?

时间不够了。

Shíjiān bú gòu le.

There's not enough time.

我吃够了。

Wǒ chī gòu le.

I've eaten enough.

够了，别再说了。

Gòu le, bié zài shuō le.

Enough, stop talking about it.

Tips

grammar

够 can come before or after the thing it describes. Before: 够大 (big enough). After a verb: 吃够了 (eaten enough).

usage

够了! on its own means 'Enough!' and is used to express frustration or to tell someone to stop.

Components

phonetic

句 jù

phrase; hooked

Left 句 supplies the sound: jù shifts to gòu through velar drift typical for 句-phonetic chars. Pure sound borrowing — the 'phrase / hooked' meaning plays no role. Same series: 购, 构, 沟. Indexed under Kangxi #36 夕 (xī, evening); the radical isn't visibly present in either component.

semantic

多 duō

many; much

Right 多 (many) is the meaning core. 够 means 'enough, sufficient' — directly reading 'many enough.' This is an unusual right-side semantic position; most chars place semantic on the left. Same idea anchors the modern sense '够多了 (more than enough).'

Filed under radical 夕 (xī, #36) by convention. 夕 is not a separate component in 够, so no strokes are highlighted.