着 (zháo): to touch; to come into contact…

Meanings

1 to touch; to come into contact with
2 to feel; to be affected by
3 to catch fire; to ignite
4 to fall asleep
5 to hit the mark; to succeed (as a verb complement after a main verb)

Characters

着

zháo

to touch; to come into contact with

Examples

他一躺下就睡着了。

Tā yī tǎng xià jiù shuìzháo le.

He fell asleep the moment he lay down.

小心，别着凉。

Xiǎoxīn, bié zháo liáng.

Be careful, don't catch a cold.

我找着钥匙了。

Wǒ zhǎo zháo yàoshi le.

I found the keys.

Tips

grammar

After a verb, 着 is a result complement — the action successfully hit its target. 找 is 'to look for'; 找着 is 'to find' (the looking succeeded). 睡 is 'to sleep' as a state; 睡着 is 'to fall asleep' (the sleeping started successfully). Slot 得 or 不 between verb and 着 to make potential form: 睡得着 (able to fall asleep), 睡不着 (unable to fall asleep).

memory

zháo (rising tone) is the 'contact + result' reading. Picture the verb as an action arrow and 着 as the impact — the arrow connects. Catching cold (着凉), catching fire (着火), getting anxious (着急) — all share the 'something reaches you and lands' image.

Components

radical

目 mù

eye

The eye radical (Kangxi 109) gives the indexing slot. On the zháo reading the eye-of-contact image fits 'something reaches you, lands on you, makes contact' — catching cold, catching fire, hitting the mark. The same character 着 also appears as 着 (aspect particle), 着 ('to wear') and 着 ('a chess move'); the four readings share one glyph but split the meaning across separate dictionary entries.

semantic

羊 yáng

sheep (graphic only)

Looks like 羊 (sheep) but is the cursive simplification of 艹 (grass) over 者 from the original 著. Graphic placeholder; not a meaning contributor on this reading.