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控

kòng
verb #1,749

Meanings

  1. 1 to control
  2. 2 to accuse
  3. 3 to charge

Examples

你要学会控制情绪。
Nǐ yào xuéhuì kòngzhì qíngxù.
You need to learn to control your emotions.
遥控器在哪儿？
Yáokòngqì zài nǎr?
Where is the remote control?

Tips

usage
Common in 控制 (kòngzhì, to control) and 遥控 (yáokòng, remote control).

Components

radical
扌 shǒu
hand (radical form)
Left hand radical — the indexing component. Controlling, accusing, and pulling something taut all involve manual force, so the hand radical anchors the meaning. Almost every verb of physical manipulation in Chinese carries this radical: 拿, 抓, 推, 拉, 挑, 按.
phonetic
空 kōng
empty; sky
Right 空 supplies the sound — kōng to kòng, a tone shift. Faintly semantic too: to "control" is to hold something within an empty grip, to leave space for it to operate. This is also the source of the secondary reading kòng meaning "free time, vacancy" (有空 = have time).

Stroke Order

控 kòng