Writing Balance Rule: The left radical (耒) should be slightly narrower than the right component (井), maintaining a balanced and stable center of gravity.
1. Meaning
to plow, to till
to cultivateto labor diligently
VerbNeutral#agriculture#labor#farming
Sample Usage
农民在田里耕地。
nóngmín zài tián lǐ gēng dì.
Farmers plow the fields in the farmland.
笔耕不辍
bǐ gēng bù chuò
to write untiringly (metaphor: 'plowing with the pen without stopping')
2. Sound
/[kɤŋ⁵⁵]/Tone: 55
耕
gēnggeng1
|
++
¯(55)
=gēng
Build the syllable
Step-by-step blending
geng
Tone mark placement: Tone mark sits on "e" per main-vowel priority (a > e > o; in -iu/-ui the mark takes the second vowel).
Initial Consonant
g
Type: Unaspirated Velar
Sounds like: g sound as in 'go'
Unaspirated
Airflow Tactile Test: No burst of air (sounds like 'c' in Vietnamese 'cá' or 'k' in English 'skate').
Tongue & Mouth Position: Back of the tongue is raised to touch the soft palate, then released without a burst of air.
Final Rhyme
eng
Vowel Group: -e vowel group
Sounds like: -eng rhymes with 'sung' minus the s
Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'uhng'.
Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.
Tone
T1 (55)
5 → 5 (55)
1st Tone (High-Flat)
Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 1 is pronounced at a high, flat pitch level, similar to a high sustained musical note or a flat line in intonation.
👂
Listening trap: Confusing the vowel sound '-eng' with '-ong'. '-eng' uses an unrounded central vowel sound, whereas '-ong' uses a rounded back vowel.
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Physical Tone Gesture: Tone 1 is a high, steady pitch like singing a high note on a single sustained musical pitch, accompanied by a flat horizontal hand gesture.
3. Writing
Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 10 strokes
Writing Balance Rule: The left radical (耒) should be slightly narrower than the right component (井), maintaining a balanced and stable center of gravity.
4. Components
Radical耒 · plow radical (ancient wooden plow)
Semantic Clue (形旁):耒 (indicates agricultural activity and tools related to plowing)
The agricultural tool (耒) is combined with a well or grid layout (井) representing a cultivated field, showing the action of tilling the earth.
耒 Plow tool (semantic clue)
井 Well / field grid (phonetic and conceptual clue)
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
5· Phonetic Root: 井 (jǐng)
5. History
Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)
Origin: Originally depicted an ancient wooden plow (耒) paired with a phonetic indicator (井). Over time, the character evolved to represent the act of tilling and farming land.
Semantic Evolution: From the physical tool and act of plowing fields, it expanded metaphorically to describe any form of diligent, continuous labor, such as writing ('笔耕').
Agriculture was the foundation of ancient Chinese civilization, making characters related to farming deeply significant in early scripts.
6. Sinosphere
🇻🇳
Sino-Vietnamese
canh
Mandarin Tone 1 corresponds roughly to ngang tone in Sino-Vietnamese.
🇯🇵
Kanji (Japanese)
On: コウ (kō) / Kun: はやす (hayasu), たがやす (tagayasu)
🇰🇷
Hanja (Korean)
경
7. Memory
Vivid Mnemonic Story
Imagine a farmer using a wooden plow (耒) to till the soil around a neat, square field grid (井) to grow crops.
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
井
jǐngwellPhonetic Core (声旁)
进
jìnto enter, to advance, to go forward+ 辶 (walking)