Writing Balance Rule: The upper portion contains horizontal elements that must be neatly spaced, while the bottom part opens up wide with horizontal strokes supporting the base.
1. Meaning
tool, utensil, equipment
talent or abilityto possess or provideclassifier for machines, coffins, and dead bodies
Airflow Tactile Test: No air puff. Lips spread wide like smiling.
Tongue & Mouth Position: Front of the tongue pressed flat against the hard palate.
Final Rhyme
u
Vowel Group: -v vowel group
Sounds like: ü sound like German ü or French u
Note: Written as 'u', pronounced as rounded 'ü' [y].
Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ü'.
Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.
Tone
T4 (51)
5 → 1 (51)
4th Tone (High-Falling)
Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 starts high and drops sharply to the bottom, identical to saying an emphatic 'No!' in English.
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Listening trap: Confusing the rounded front vowel 'ü' with the plain 'u' (oo), or mixing up Tone 4 (jù) with Tone 2 (jú).
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Physical Tone Gesture: A swift, sharp karate chop downward from high to low, representing Tone 4's absolute finality.
3. Writing
Topology: Top-bottom · Strokes: 8 strokes
Writing Balance Rule: The upper portion contains horizontal elements that must be neatly spaced, while the bottom part opens up wide with horizontal strokes supporting the base.
4. Components
Radical八 · Eight Radical (divide, eight)
Originally depicted hands holding a sacrificial vessel or container, combining elements of food and container to represent utensils and tools.
目 eye or container container shape in evolution
八 hands grasping or bottom base
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
6· Phonetic Root: 具 (jù)
5. History
Liushu category: Compound ideogram (会意)
Origin: In Oracle Bone script, 具 was written as hands (两手) holding a vessel (鼎 or 皿), symbolizing the preparation and provisioning of food items or sacrificial utensils.
Semantic Evolution: From 'sacrificial vessel/utensil' to 'tool, equipment in general', and later generalized to mean 'to possess, to prepare, or to provide'.
Ancient texts used 具 interchangeably with 俱, meaning 'all together' or 'completely'.
6. Sinosphere
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Sino-Vietnamese
cụ
Mandarin Tone 4 (sharp falling) corresponds to Vietnamese nặng tone or sắc tone depending on historical entering tones.
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Kanji (Japanese)
On: グ / Kun: そな.える, つぶさに
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Hanja (Korean)
구
7. Memory
Vivid Mnemonic Story
You use your two hands (represented by the bottom 八) to prepare all kinds of cooking utensils and tools (具) in the kitchen.
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
俱
jùtogether, allAdded person radical (亻) on the left for people together.
惧
jùfear, dreadAdded heart radical (忄) on the left for emotional fear.
Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)
真(zhēn)
真 has three horizontal strokes inside the middle box, whereas 具 has two horizontal lines with a pair of strokes at the bottom.
8. Mastery
Active Recall Challenge
我们去野营需要准备很多露营[___]。
Clue: gōng jù / yòng jù
Common Learner Pitfall
Confusing the order of horizontal lines inside the character or mispronouncing the rounded ü vowel as a standard English 'oo'.
Memory Prompts
Recognition: What does the character 具 mean when it acts as a noun suffix like 工具 (gōngjù)?
Production: How do you write the character for 'tool / equipment' (jù) in 8 strokes?
Real-World Video Context
Watch authentic native speakers pronounce and explain this word in real-world YouTube videos.
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具jùtool, device, utensil
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