IDENTITY
该gāishould; ought to
HSK 2Top 200
CORE MEANING
should; ought to
- Part of speech
- verb
- Register
- neutral
Senses
- 1.should; ought toHSK2
FORM & BREAKDOWN
- Radical
- 讠speech radical (yán)
- strokes
- 8
- Structure
- left-right compound
- IDS sequence
- ⿰讠亥
- words (of duty)
- gives the sound gāi
USAGE
Common words
应该yīnggāishould
该死gāisǐdamn (colloquial)
Graded examples
我们应该帮助他。Wǒmen yīnggāi bāngzhù tā.HSK3
We should help him.
RELATIONS
Lookalike — don’t mix up
LEARNING
Memory aid
Words (讠) of the duty hour (亥) — what should be done. (From 該.)
- HSK version
- 3.0
- Frequency rank
- #200
- Memory aid
- memory-aid
TRUST & SOURCES
- Reviewed by
- AI-assisted editorial review
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-15
Sources
- CC-CEDICT 2026-01-01
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