给 (gěi): to give

Meanings

1 to give
2 to; for; for the benefit of
3 to allow; to let
4 grammatical equivalent of 被 (passive marker)
5 grammatical equivalent of 把 (object-fronting marker)
6 sentence intensifier

Characters

给

gěi

to give; for; to

Examples

请给我一杯水。

Qǐng gěi wǒ yì bēi shuǐ.

Please give me a glass of water.

我给他打电话。

Wǒ gěi tā dǎ diànhuà.

I'll call him.

钱给小偷偷了。

Qián gěi xiǎotōu tōu le.

The money got stolen by a thief.

Tips

grammar

Five jobs in one character. (1) Verb 'to give': 给你一本书 (give you a book). (2) Preposition 'to / for': 给他做饭 (cook for him). (3) Colloquial passive (= 被): 钱给偷了 (money got stolen). (4) Object-fronting (= 把): 我给他骂了 (I scolded him). (5) Sentence intensifier before a verb: 你给我听好 (you listen up!).

mistakes

Two readings to keep straight. Colloquial 给 gěi covers everyday 'give / for / to'. Formal 给 jǐ means 'to supply / to provide' and only appears in bound compounds like 供给, 配给, 给养, 自给自足. Never use jǐ in colloquial speech.

Components

radical

纟 sī

silk; thread

Silk radical on the left (side-form of 糸) — three strokes for a hank of silk thread. The earliest sense was 'to supply' (silk, cloth, provisions) to soldiers and officials, hence the silk radical. From 'supply' came the everyday 'give'. Family: 红 (red), 绿 (green), 织 (weave), 纸 (paper).

phonetic

合 hé

to combine (here phonetic)

Right-side 合 supplies the sound — hé drifted to gěi (and jǐ in formal readings) through Old Chinese final-consonant alternation. Same phonetic in 答 (answer), 拾 (pick up), 哈 (ha). 合 pictures a lid over a vessel — 'cover meeting container'. Faint echo of 'handing over to match a need'.