Where 狗 comes from
dog
- Meaning part
- 犭 (“animal”)
- Sound part
- 句 (“sentence”)
How to write 狗 (gǒu, “dog”)
狗 (gǒu), an HSK 1 character, means “dog”. It is HSK 1 in the 2025 syllabus, down from level 2 in the 2021 standard. It pairs a meaning part, 犭 (“animal”), with a sound part, 句 (“sentence”). On its own it is an HSK 1 word, and it forms 奶狗 (“very young puppy”), 小狗 (“pup”) and 热狗 (“hot dog (loanword)”). Japanese reads it ku, “puppy”.
- Pinyin
- gǒu
- Strokes
- 8
- HSK
- 1
- Radical
- 犭 (“animal”)
Stroke by stroke
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
As a left-right character it splits into 犭 (“animal”, the radical), strokes 1–3; 句 (“sentence”), strokes 4–8, written the left part first.
- Left-falling stroke ㇒top leftdown and left
- Curved hook ㇁top leftdownwards
- Left-falling stroke ㇒leftdown and left
- Left-falling stroke ㇒topdown and right → down and left
- Horizontal-turn-hook ㇆centerrightwards → downwards
- Vertical ㇑centerdownwards
- Horizontal-turn ㇕centerrightwards → down and left
- Horizontal ㇐bottomrightwards
Japanese and Chinese
Japanese and Chinese draw all 8 strokes in the same order and direction, by our stroke-by-stroke comparison.
Trace it
Follow the numbers. Tracing help
Pinyin and meaning
| Pinyin | Meanings | Traditional | In words |
|---|---|---|---|
| gǒu third tone | dog | — | 奶狗 小狗 热狗 狗子 |
- HSK 2025 syllabus
- level 1
- 2021 standard
- level 2
- HSK 2.0
- in a level 1 word
- Words with it
- 102 in CC-CEDICT
Words with 狗
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 狗 | gǒu | dog HSK 1 |
| 奶狗 | nǎigǒu | very young puppy |
| 小狗 | xiǎogǒu | pup; puppy |
| 热狗 熱狗 | règǒu | hot dog (loanword) |
| 狗子 | gǒuzi | dog |
| 狗年 | gǒunián | Year of the Dog |
| 八哥狗 | bāgēgǒu | pug (breed of dog) |
| 看家狗 | kānjiāgǒu | watchdog |
| 周狗 | zhōugǒu | obedient dog; lackey |
| 狗肉 | gǒuròu | dog meat |
HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).
Practice sheet
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Keep going
HSK 1, in list order: