noun

Measure Word

Meanings

  1. 1 large boat
  2. 2 barge

Examples

HSK 7-9
Bǎi gě zhēng liú, qiān fān jìng fā.
A hundred boats vie in the current, a thousand sails race forth.
HSK 7-9
Jiāngmiàn shàng yǒu jǐ sōu dà gě huǎnhuǎn shǐguò.
Several large barges glide slowly across the river.

Tips

history
Almost exclusively literary today. Best known from Mao Zedong's 1925 poem 《沁园春·长沙》: 漫江碧透百舸争流 ('the whole river clear and green, a hundred boats vying in the current') - the line that made 百舸争流 a stock metaphor for fierce competition.

Components

radical
zhōu
boat; vessel
Left boat radical - pictograph of a small wooden craft seen from above. The indexing radical, putting in the watercraft family alongside ship, launch, voyage. Here it signals a sizeable vessel, often a war galley or pleasure barge in classical poetry.
phonetic
may; can
Right supplies the sound - kě drifting to gě via the same k/g alternation seen in elder brother, song, river. contributes no transparent meaning here; the family pattern across /// makes this a recognisable phonetic bundle for learners.

Stroke Order