抓 (zhuā): to grab; to seize

Meanings

1 to grab; to seize
2 to catch; to arrest
3 to scratch

Characters

抓

zhuā

to grab; to catch; to scratch

Contains the hand radical 扌, as grabbing is a hand action.

Examples

猫抓了我一下。

Māo zhuā le wǒ yīxià.

The cat scratched me.

警察抓住了小偷。

Jǐngchá zhuāzhù le xiǎotōu.

The police caught the thief.

他抓起书包就跑。

Tā zhuāqǐ shūbāo jiù pǎo.

He grabbed his backpack and ran.

别抓头发。

Bié zhuā tóufa.

Don't scratch your head.

Tips

usage

抓紧 means 'to hold tight' or 'to hurry up': 抓紧时间 (make the most of your time). 抓住 means 'to grab hold of' or 'to capture.'

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical, left-side form of 手)

Left hand radical — the side-form of 手. Anchors 抓 as a hand action: grabbing, scratching, snatching are all done with the fingers. Same radical fronts the entire manipulation-verb family — 拉 to pull, 拿 to take, 推 to push, 扯 to tug — making 抓 instantly readable as 'hand-action.'

phonetic

爪 zhǎo

claw (phonetic + semantic)

Right side 爪 — claw, talon. Supplies the sound (zhǎo close to zhuā) and a vivid bonus image: the fingers as a claw closing on prey. So 抓 reads naturally as 'hand acting like a claw' = grasp. A textbook case where the phonetic also pulls full semantic weight.