VocabHackerBeta
VH
DictionaryVocab Lists
Sign in
Sign in
Sign up

该

該
gāi
#319 most
frequent character
this,pron
pronoun

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

该 uses 讠 speech as the meaning part and 亥 hài for the sound. Its first sense was military discipline. That grew to 'how things ought to be', 'should', and 'deserve'. The sense 'that' was borrowed only for the sound.

Ask DeepSeek

Example Sentences

该怎么做?
gāi zěnme zuò ?
What should be done?
该你出场了。
gāi nǐ chūchǎng le 。
It's your turn to perform.
你该知道这个消息。
nǐ gāi zhīdào zhègè xiāoxī 。
You should know this news.

Your word lists

Sign in to add this word to your private lists.

Grammar Points

HSK 3
Expressing "should" with "yinggai"