攻

gōng
verb HSK 7-9 #5,669

Meanings

  1. 1 to attack
  2. 2 to study

Examples

HSK 6
Tā gōngdú bóshì xuéwèi yǐjīng sān nián le.
He has been pursuing a doctorate for three years.
HSK 6
Méitǐ búduàn gōngjī zhèwèi zhèngkè.
The media keeps attacking this politician.
HSK 7-9
Díjūn zài límíng shífèn jìngōng le chéngshì.
The enemy army attacked the city at dawn.

Tips

memory
工 (work) + 攵 (strike) - to work at striking

Components

radical
攵 pū
to tap, strike (radical, variant of 攴)
Right action radical - the indexing radical, the 4-stroke abbreviated form of 攴, depicting a hand holding a stick. Marks 攻 as active intervention with force. Compound logic: work + strike = sustained attack. Same radical drives 救 rescue, 改 change, 教 teach - all 'getting it done by hand-action.'
phonetic
工 gōng
work (phonetic)
Left 工 supplies the sound exactly: gōng. The 'work, labor' meaning of 工 also adds a faint semantic resonance - attacking is sustained effort. Same phonetic frame in 功 merit and 红 red. The simplest possible left half: just a carpenter's square or a leveling tool.

Stroke Order

攻 gōng