HSK 6 · Verbs

扛 káng “to carry on one’s shoulder” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 扛 means

  1. to carry on one’s shoulder
  2. (fig.) to take on (a burden, duty etc)

How to say 扛

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale扛káng2nd tone, rising

扛 in a sentence

  1. 我把盒子扛在肩上。

    Wǒ bǎ hézi káng zài jiān shàng.

    I carried the box on my shoulder.

    Sentence #472862 from Tatoeba

  2. 我扛着米袋。

    Wǒ káng zhe mǐdài.

    I’m carrying a bag of rice on my shoulder.

    Sentence #8727927 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 扛 can also mean “to shoulder (a responsibility)”

    为了这次的损失，他扛起责任，辞职了。

    Wèile zhè cì de sǔnshī, tā káng qǐ zérèn, cízhí le.

    He shouldered the responsibility for the loss and resigned.

    Sentence #1404403 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 扛 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 扛 (káng) with each of its parts in a different colour
扛kángto carry on one’s shoulder
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒu
  • 工work · gōng

How to write 扛

扛 6 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

扛 (káng) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 扛 (káng). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 扛

More words: Common Verbs

居住jūzhù · to live (in a place)开辟kāipì · to open up开拓kāituò · to open up开展kāizhǎn · to launch考察kǎochá · to investigate靠拢kàolǒng · to draw close磕kē · to knock (against)啃kěn · to gnaw

FAQs

扛 (káng) means “to carry on one’s shoulder” or “(fig.) to take on (a burden, duty etc)”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it káng: káng with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 扛 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type kang with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 扛 from the suggestions. Typing kang into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
扛 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.