夸 (kuā) · to praise, to boast, to exaggerate

Meanings

1 to praise
2 to boast
3 to exaggerate

Characters

夸

kuā

to praise; to boast

Examples

HSK 3

老师夸他学习很努力。

Lǎoshī kuā tā xuéxí hěn nǔlì.

The teacher praised him for studying hard.

HSK 4

大家都夸这道菜好吃。

Dàjiā dōu kuā zhè dào cài hǎochī.

Everyone praised how delicious this dish is.

Tips

usage

夸 on its own usually means 'to praise' in everyday speech. The 'boast/exaggerate' meaning appears mainly in compounds like 夸大, 夸张, 夸口.

Components

radical

大 dà

big; large

Top 大 - the indexing radical, picturing a person with arms outstretched to gesture how big. Anchors 夸 in the idea of magnification: making something seem bigger than it is. From there came the modern senses to boast and to exaggerate.

phonetic

亏 kuī

lacking; short

Bottom 亏 supplies the sound (kuī → kuā with a regular vowel shift). 亏 itself depicts breath running out, ironically pairing well with 大 above: a lot of empty breath puffed up to look big - a vivid mnemonic for the boast meaning. Same phonetic in 跨 (stride), 垮 (collapse), 挎 (carry on the arm).