格 (gé): square; grid; lattice; frame

Meanings

1 square; grid; lattice; frame
2 compartment; partition; slot
3 standard; norm; specification
4 character; disposition; style; aesthetic tone
5 grammatical case
6 a compartment; a slot; a cell

Characters

格

gé

square; grid; standard; style

Examples

HSK 1

请在第一格里写你的名字。

Qǐng zài dìyī gé lǐ xiě nǐ de míngzi.

Please write your name in the first box.

HSK 3

他的性格很好。

Tā de xìnggé hěn hǎo.

He has a good personality.

HSK 3

这个不合格。

Zhège bù hégé.

This one doesn't meet the standard.

Tips

usage

格 carries two linked senses - physical 'grid / compartment' (a square on a form, a slot in a drawer) and abstract 'standard / character' (the box you fit into). Hugely productive in compounds: 性格 (personality), 格外 (especially), 合格 (qualified), 价格 (price), 风格 (style), 严格 (strict).

register

A rare gē reading exists in onomatopoeic redirects (e.g. older dictionaries list 格格 as a variant of 咯咯 'clucking / giggling'), but in modern use you'll almost never see it - 格 is gé in essentially every compound, and the Qing-era princess title 格格 is also read with gé.

Components

radical

木 mù

tree; wood

Left indexing wood radical - a pictograph of a tree. 格 originally referred to the wooden lattice or grid framework of a window or partition. The wood radical anchors it in the carpentry family alongside 架 (rack), 板 (board), and 桌 (table).

phonetic

各 gè

each (here phonetic)

Right 各 supplies the sound (gè → gé with tone shift). Same phonetic family: 客 (guest), 落 (fall), 路 (road), 略 (omit), 阁 (pavilion). 各 also lends a faint flavor of 'each thing in its slot' - fitting the frame/grid/standard sense.