部首radical (犭)部件component (rest of character)书写your drawing
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字源zìyuánEtymology & Structure
字源洞见 zìyuán dòngjiàn · Etymological Insight
狗 splits cleanly left and right: 狗 = 犭+ 句. The left element 犭is the compressed standing form of 犬 (quǎn), the beast radical, three slim strokes that read like a four-legged animal caught mid-stride. The right element 句 (jù) carries no canine meaning at all; it supplies the sound. This makes 狗 a textbook pictophonetic, the most common construction in the Chinese script: one half points at the category, the other half whispers the pronunciation.
The semantic 犭attaches 狗 to a whole pack of animal graphs, 猫 (māo, cat), 猪 (zhū, pig), 猴 (hóu, monkey), every one of them flagged as a creature by that same lean radical. In the seal script the radical still shows the high back and dropped tail of a hound; the modern 犭flattens it into the upright three-stroke form you write today. The phonetic 句, meanwhile, also seeds 句 (sentence), 够 (enough), and 钩 (hook), a family bound not by meaning but by that recurring -ou sound.
Classical Chinese kept a fine distinction that modern Mandarin has nearly erased. 犬 named the full-grown dog, 狗 the puppy or smaller breed; the Shuōwén glosses 狗 as a young dog. In everyday speech 狗 has long since swallowed 犬 to mean any dog, while 犬 survives mostly in compounds and formal registers (警犬 jǐngquǎn, police dog). Japanese reads the same character いぬ (inu) or ク (ku), keeping it as the standard word for dog.
犬属quǎnshǔKinds of Dog
小狗xiǎogǒupuppy, little dog
N 名词 míngcí
小 (xiǎo, small) + 狗. The everyday word for a puppy or any small dog. 小狗 is warm and affectionate, the term a child reaches for first.
这只小狗才两个月大。
Zhè zhī xiǎogǒu cái liǎng gè yuè dà.
This puppy is only two months old.
狗熊gǒuxióngblack bear; coward
N 名词 míngcí
狗 + 熊 (xióng, bear). Literally a dog-bear, the colloquial name for the Asian black bear. Figuratively 狗熊 brands a coward, the opposite of a 英雄 (yīngxióng, hero), a pun that turns on the rhyme.
Hero or coward, it depends on whether you dare to step up today.
辨析 biànxī · 狗熊 vs. 黑熊 黑熊 (hēixióng) is the neutral zoological name; 狗熊 is the folksy spoken word and also the insult.
守用shǒuyòngWorking Dogs
猎狗liègǒuhunting dog, hound
N 名词 míngcí
猎 (liè, to hunt) + 狗. A dog bred or trained to hunt: pointer, retriever, hound. The character 猎 itself carries the beast radical 犭, so the compound stacks two animal-marked graphs.
猎人带着两条猎狗进了山。
Lièrén dàizhe liǎng tiáo liègǒu jìnle shān.
The hunter went up the mountain with two hounds.
看门狗kānméngǒuwatchdog, guard dog
N 名词 míngcí
看门 (kānmén, to watch the gate) + 狗. A dog that guards the door. Figuratively it names anything that stands watch, including the software process that restarts a crashed system.
这条看门狗一有动静就叫。
Zhè tiáo kānméngǒu yì yǒu dòngjìng jiù jiào.
This watchdog barks at the slightest sound.
辨析 biànxī · 看 reading In 看门 the verb 看 reads kān (to watch over, guard), not kàn (to look at). Same graph, two tones, two jobs.
狗叫gǒu jiàoa dog barks
V+N 主谓 zhǔwèi
狗 + 叫 (jiào, to call out, cry). The plain way to say a dog is barking. 汪汪 (wāngwāng) is the onomatopoeia for the sound itself.
半夜里听见狗叫，他吓了一跳。
Bànyè lǐ tīngjiàn gǒu jiào, tā xiàle yí tiào.
Hearing a dog bark in the middle of the night, he jumped with fright.
成语chéngyǔIdioms & Set Phrases
狗急跳墙gǒu jí tiào qiánga cornered dog leaps the wall: desperation breeds reckless actsThe image is a trapped dog that, with no escape, hurls itself over a wall it could never normally clear. Used of people pushed past the edge who lash out wildly. Common in spoken and written warnings.
鸡飞狗跳jī fēi gǒu tiàochickens fly and dogs leap: utter chaos and uproarA farmyard thrown into panic, hens flapping and dogs bolting. Describes a household or scene in total disorder. Lively and colloquial.
狼心狗肺láng xīn gǒu fèiwolf's heart, dog's lungs: cruel and ungratefulA vivid curse for someone heartless who repays kindness with betrayal. The wolf and dog organs stand for savagery and baseness. Strong, accusatory register.
狗尾续貂gǒu wěi xù diāopatching a sable robe with a dog's tail: a shabby sequel to a fine workFrom the Jìn Shū, where lavish marten-fur posts ran short and dog tails were used instead. Now a self-deprecating or critical term for an unworthy continuation of something excellent.
记忆法 jìyìfǎ · Master Retention Image
Picture a lean hound straining at a gate. Its taut body is the left radical 犭, three quick strokes that are all spine and legs, an animal leaning forward, ears up. The radical tells you instantly: this is a beast. What it cannot tell you is how to say it. For that, lean in and listen to the dog's collar tag clinking, 句, 句, gǒu, gǒu. The sound rides in on the right half of the character.
Now let the meaning fan out through the compounds. Shrink the hound to a 小狗 (xiǎogǒu) and it is a puppy tumbling at your feet. Set it on a scent and it becomes a 猎狗 (liègǒu) nose to the ground. Chain it by the door and you have a 看门狗 (kānméngǒu) barking at every footstep. Corner it against a wall and you watch 狗急跳墙 (gǒu jí tiào qiáng), the desperate leap. Every one of these is the same eight-stroke glyph: beast on the left, the clink of gǒu on the right.
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