给 (jǐ): to supply

Meanings

1 to supply
2 to provide
3 to furnish

Characters

给

jǐ

to supply

Examples

HSK 6

政府供给灾区粮食。

Zhèngfǔ gōngjǐ zāiqū liángshi.

The government supplies food to the disaster area.

HSK 6

这个村庄基本自给自足。

Zhège cūnzhuāng jīběn zìjǐ-zìzú.

This village is basically self-sufficient.

HSK 7-9

战时物资实行配给。

Zhànshí wùzī shíxíng pèijǐ.

In wartime, supplies were rationed.

Tips

register

Reading jǐ is bound - it never stands alone or appears in casual speech. You only meet it inside formal/technical compounds: 供给 (supply), 配给 (ration), 给养 (military provisions), 给予 (formal 'to grant'), 给水 (water supply, engineering), 自给自足 (self-sufficient). For 'to give' in everyday speech, switch to the gěi reading.

memory

Trick: if the compound feels like something on a government form or a military supply line, the 给 is jǐ. If you'd say it to a friend over coffee, it's gěi.

Components

radical

纟 sī

silk; thread

Silk radical (side-form of 糸) - three strokes for a hank of thread. The jǐ reading preserves the oldest sense of the character: issuing silk, cloth, and grain rations to soldiers and officials. From that 'supply / provision' meaning the colloquial gěi 'to give' later developed.

phonetic

合 hé

to combine (here phonetic)

Right-side 合 is the phonetic - Old Chinese 合 had a final stop that left traces in both the gěi and jǐ readings; the literary jǐ stayed closer to the original syllable shape. 合 also adds a faint semantic flavor of 'matching / fitting' - supplying just what is needed.