Character: 国 (guó) country

国 (guó) means country, the character is visualized as a string of jade inside of the city walls

City walls surrounding a string of jade

 

Pinyin guó
Meaning country; nation; state
Radical 囗 繁體字 國
the written pattern 国 (guó) country, highlighted in red, is found in the character 玉 囗

writing patterns, not components

Chinese character compound ideographcategory: compound ideograph

Chinese character enclosure structurestructure: enclosure

8stroke count

HSK 1

Stroke order of the Chinese character 国 (guó) country. There are 8 strokes, and the character is written first with the outside cover, then the content inside, and the bottom stroke last

Breakdown

国 (guó) “country” is a compound ideograph that consists of 囗 “enclosure” and 玉 (yù) “jade.” 囗 stands for a country’s border, while 玉 (yù) represents the country itself, as the home country is as beautiful and precious as jade.

guó
国
country		 囗
enclosure		 yīn
因
reason		 yuán
园
garden
yù
玉
jade		 bǎo
宝
treasure		 yíng
莹
luster of gems

Used as a morpheme/word

国 (guó) is mainly used as a morpheme that indicates something related to countries or nations. It is also often used as a part of country names. For example, 德国 (Déguó) “Germany” is literally “De-(utschland)-country.”

Wordlist

  • HSK 1: 中国 (Zhōngguó) China
  • HSK 3: 国家 (guójiā) country
  • HSK 4: 国籍 (guójí) nationality
  • HSK 4: 国际 (guójì) international
  • HSK 5: 国王 (guówáng) king

How to pronounce

This character sounds like the connected k-wa of “ask war.”

2nd Pinyin Yale IPA
Initial g- g [k]
Final -uo wo [ʊo]

Chinese character practice sheet

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