HSK 1 · Common Objects

狗 gǒu “dog” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 狗 means

  1. dog

Measure word 只 zhī or 条 tiáo · 一只狗 yì zhī gǒu

How to say 狗

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale狗gǒu3rd tone, dipping

狗 in a sentence

  1. 你的狗在哪儿？

    Nǐ de gǒu zài nǎr?

    Where is your dog?

    Sentence #462030 from Tatoeba

  2. 他把他的狗带到学校去了。

    Tā bǎ tā de gǒu dài dào xuéxiào qù le.

    He brought his dog to school.

    Sentence #676494 from Tatoeba

  3. 你不在的时候谁在照看狗？

    Nǐ bú zài de shíhou shéi zài zhàokàn gǒu?

    Who is looking after the dog while you are away?

    Sentence #1325018 from Tatoeba

How 狗 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 狗 (gǒu) with each of its parts in a different colour
狗gǒudog
  • 犭dog form of 犬 · quǎnMeaning part
  • 句sentence · jùSound part

犭 hints at the meaning (dog); 句 (jù) hints at the sound. Compare it with gǒu.

How to write 狗

狗 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 狗

More words: Everyday Things

飞机fēijī · aeroplane出租车chūzūchē · taxi天气tiānqì · weather猫māo · cat东西dōngxi · thing字zì · character汉语Hànyǔ · Mandarin (Han language)报纸bàozhǐ · newspaper

In the Chinese zodiac

狗gǒu · Year of the Dog

狗 is the dog of the Chinese zodiac.

FAQs

狗 (gǒu) means “dog”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it gǒu: gǒu with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 狗 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Use 只 (zhī) or 条 (tiáo). For example, one dog is 一只狗 (yì zhī gǒu).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type gou with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 狗 from the suggestions. Typing gou into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
狗 is an HSK 1 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.