通 (tōng): to go through; to pass through

Meanings

1 to go through; to pass through
2 to connect; to lead to
3 to communicate; to be in touch
4 to understand thoroughly; to be expert in
5 open; unobstructed; clear
6 common; general; widely shared
7 classifier for letters, telegrams, and phone calls

Characters

通

tōng

go through; connect; understand

Examples

这条路通到哪里?

Zhè tiáo lù tōng dào nǎlǐ?

Where does this road lead to?

电话打通了。

Diànhuà dǎtōng le.

The phone call got through.

她精通三门语言。

Tā jīngtōng sān mén yǔyán.

She is fluent in three languages.

Tips

usage

Core idea: a passage is clear from one end to the other. From this come all the senses — physical (roads, pipes, calls), mental (mastering a subject), and social (communicating, connecting). Showpiece compounds: 交通 (traffic), 普通 (ordinary), 沟通 (communicate), 通知 (notify).

register

Second reading 通 (fourth tone) is a separate classifier for a whole bout of activity — a tirade of scolding, a stint of drumming, a session of arguing. Default to tōng everywhere else; the tòng reading is bound to this classifier pattern.

Components

radical

辶 chuò

walk; movement

Walking radical, the wrap-around left-and-bottom form of 辵. Supplies the meaning: motion along a road, going through, passing. Joins 道, 进, 还, 远, 近 in the road-and-travel family.

phonetic

甬 yǒng

passageway; bell handle

Supplies the sound — yǒng shifted to tōng, a regular Old Chinese alternation. 甬 also lends a strong semantic echo: it originally pictured a bell-handle or a covered walkway (still alive in 甬道, 'covered passage'). Combined with the walking radical, 通 becomes 'to make a way through a passageway'.