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

HSK 1

电话打通了。

Diànhuà dǎtōng le.

The phone call got through.

HSK 2

这条路通到哪里?

Zhè tiáo lù tōng dào nǎlǐ?

Where does this road lead to?

HSK 6

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'.