过 (guò) · to cross; to go over; to pass through

Meanings

1 to cross; to go over; to pass through
2 to pass (time); to spend
3 to celebrate (a holiday)
4 to live; to get along
5 excessively; too-; over-

Characters

过

guò

to cross; to pass; to spend (time)

Examples

HSK 1

我们在北京过春节。

Wǒmen zài Běijīng guò Chūnjié.

We celebrate the Spring Festival in Beijing.

HSK 2

时间过得很快。

Shíjiān guò de hěn kuài.

Time passes very quickly.

HSK 3

过马路要小心。

Guò mǎlù yào xiǎoxīn.

Be careful when crossing the street.

Tips

usage

Three big senses share the same character. Movement: 过马路 (cross the street). Time: 时间过得很快 (time passes). Celebration/living: 过年, 过生日, 过日子. The thread is going across or through something - a road, a year, a life.

memory

Picture the walk-radical 辶 wrapping the bottom-left as a winding road, with 寸 (the inch-measure hand) marking each step you take across it. Every sense of guò is some kind of crossing: a street, a holiday, an obstacle, a threshold of 'too much'.

Components

radical

辶 chuò

walk; movement (radical form)

Walk-radical wrapping bottom-left - the contracted form of 辵 'walk'. Marks 过 as a movement verb: passing, crossing, going through. The same radical anchors most movement verbs (这, 进, 远, 近, 还). The toneless aspect-particle use (guo, 'have done') extended from 'having gone past it'.

phonetic

寸 cùn

inch; hand-measure (here phonetic)

Top-right 寸 - the simplified replacement for the much more complex 咼 of traditional 過. Supplies the sound: cùn shifted to guò, a substantial drift typical of 1956 reform substitutions. Pure phonetic loan; the inch-measure meaning of 寸 contributes nothing semantically here.