挂 (guà): to hang; to hang up

Meanings

1 to hang; to hang up
2 to hang up (the phone)
3 to register (at a hospital)

Characters

挂

guà

to hang; to hang up (phone)

Contains 扌 (hand radical) - you use your hand to hang something up.

Examples

HSK 1

先去挂号再看医生。

Xiān qù guàhào zài kàn yīshēng.

First register, then see the doctor.

HSK 3

他把电话挂了。

Tā bǎ diànhuà guà le.

He hung up the phone.

HSK 5

墙上挂着一幅画。

Qiáng shàng guà zhe yī fú huà.

A painting is hanging on the wall.

Tips

usage

挂号 means to register at a hospital - you must do this before seeing a doctor in China. It also means 'registered mail.'

grammar

挂着 uses the 着 aspect to describe a sustained state: 墙上挂着画 (a painting is hanging on the wall).

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical form)

Left hand radical - simplified 3-stroke form of 手. The indexing radical. Hanging something on a hook is a manual placing action, so the radical is literal. Same radical heads 拿, 抓, 推, 拉 - the hand-driven verb family.

phonetic

圭 guī

jade tablet

Right component supplies the sound (guī → guà, a regular Old Chinese tone-and-final shift in the velar-vowel family). 圭 itself is two stacked 土 'earth' - a pictograph of a long jade tablet that nobles held during audiences with the emperor. The tablets were displayed by being hung on stands, so faint semantic echo too. Same phonetic in 街 (street), 佳 (excellent), 桂 (cassia/Guangxi).