奉

fèng
verb #6,597

Meanings

  1. 1 to offer; to present respectfully
  2. 2 to serve; to attend to
  3. 3 to receive (orders); to obey

Examples

HSK 1
奉上一杯茶。
Fèngshàng yī bēi chá.
Allow me to offer you a cup of tea.
HSK 7-9
Tā xìnfèng Fójiào.
He believes in Buddhism.

Tips

usage
奉献 = to dedicate/contribute. 信奉 = to believe in. 奉劝 = to earnestly advise.

Components

radical
大 dà
big; person with arms outstretched
Xinhua indexes 奉 under the 大 radical, picking the middle three strokes as the anchor. The 大 here pictures the held-aloft object spreading across the hands - what is being respectfully offered up. The radical sits sandwiched between the upper horizontals and lower stem.
ideograph
三 sān
three crossings (fused upper)
Two horizontal strokes function as the upper edge of the held-aloft object - a fused residue with no transparent component structure. Historically the original 奉 had two hands plus a horizontal across the top; the simplified silhouette has collapsed that into the pair of horizontals seen here.
phonetic
丰 fēng
lower stem (fused remainder)
The bottom three strokes form a stem shape that historically carried the phonetic 丰 - the sound that gave 奉 its reading 'fèng'. In the modern form this stem has fused with the surrounding strokes and is no longer fully separable from the held-aloft picture above.

Stroke Order

奉 fèng