què
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to discuss
  2. 2 to deliberate
  3. 3 state monopoly (on a commodity)

Examples

HSK 3
Shuāngfāng shāngquè le hézuò de tiáojiàn.
The two sides discussed and weighed the terms of cooperation.
HSK 7-9
Zhège jiélùn hái yǒudài shāngquè.
This conclusion is still open to debate.

Tips

usage
In modern writing survives mainly in 商榷, a polite, formal way to say 'this point is debatable' or 'let us discuss further'. The old meaning was a government monopoly on goods like salt and tea.

Components

radical
tree; wood
Left-side wood radical . The earliest sense was a single wooden plank used as a footbridge; from 'one crossing point' grew the ideas of monopoly and, later, careful weighing of a matter.
phonetic
sound element
Right side supplies the sound què; the same phonetic appears in and .

Stroke Order

què