去

Translingual[edit]

Stroke order

Han character[edit]

去 (radical 28 厶+3, 5 strokes, cangjie input 土戈 (GI), four-corner 4073₁, composition ⿱土厶)

Derived characters[edit]

却

References[edit]

KangXi: page 164, character 10
Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 3070
Dae Jaweon: page 372, character 7
Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 384, character 8
Unihan data for U+53BB

Chinese[edit]

		-
simp. and trad.		去

Etymology[edit]

There were two pronunciations in Middle Chinese. The rising tone pronunciation originally meant "to put away, to eliminate" (causative of "to go away"), and the falling tone "to go away, to leave, to depart" (anticausative). The merger of the two pronunciations already happened in Old Chinese and most extant dialects do not observe this distinction now.

This word is of Sino-Tibetan origin with the basic meaning of "to get rid of". Compare Tibetan སྐྱག་པ (skyag pa, “to spend, to lay out; dung, excrement”), རྐྱག (rkyag, “dirt, excrement”), Burmese ကျ (kya., “to fall, to become low”), ချ (hkya., “to put down, to bring down, to lower”).

Graphically: Ideogrammic compound (會意): 大 (“man”) + 口 (“mouth, object”). Top figure simplified to 土, unrelated to 士 (“scholar, gentleman”), while bottom simplified to 厶. There are various interpretations of the combination of "man" and "mouth, object". One is that the ideograph represented a man with a hole marked in his crotch, and the inventors of writing had perhaps "anus" (i.e. getting rid of) in mind. Alternatively, it represented a man departing from a cave.

Pronunciation[edit]

Mandarin

(Pinyin): qù (qu⁴)

(Zhuyin): ㄑㄩˋ
Cantonese (Jyutping): heoi³
Hakka (Pha̍k-fa-sṳ): hi
Min Nan (POJ): khì / khù
Wu (WT Romanisation): qi (T2); qy (T2)

Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese, Beijing)⁺
  - Pinyin: qù
  - Zhuyin: ㄑㄩˋ
  - Wade-Giles: ch'ü⁴
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: chiw
  - IPA ^(key): /t͡ɕʰy⁵¹/
  - (file)
Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
  - Jyutping: heoi³
  - Yale: heui
  - Cantonese Pinyin: hoei³
  - IPA ^(key): /hɵy̯³³/
Hakka
- Romanisations:
  - Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: hi
  - IPA (Siyen, including Miaoli): /hi⁵⁵/
Min Nan
- (Hokkien)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: khì / khù
  - Tâi-lô: khì / khù
  - IPA (Taipei): /kʰi¹¹/, /kʰu¹¹/
  - IPA (Zhangzhou): /kʰi²¹/, /kʰu²¹/
Wu
- (Shanghainese)
  - WT Romanisation: qi (T2); qy (T2)
  - IPA ^(key): /t͡ɕʰi³⁴/, /t͡ɕʰy³⁴/

Middle Chinese pronunciation (去, reconstructed)
Character (去), Pronunciation 1/2
Initial: 溪 (29) Final: 魚 Division: III			Openness: Open Tone: Rising (X)			Fanqie: 羌舉切
Zhengzhang Shangfang	Bernard Karlgren	Li Rong	Pan Wuyun	Edwin Pulleyblank	Wang Li	Shao Rongfen
/kʰɨʌ^X/	/kʰi̯wo^X/	/kʰiɔ^X/	/kʰiɔ^X/	/kʰɨə̆^X/	/kʰĭo^X/	/kʰiɔ^X/
Character (去), Pronunciation 2/2
Initial: 溪 (29) Final: 魚 Division: III			Openness: Open Tone: Departing (H)			Fanqie: 丘倨切
Zhengzhang Shangfang	Bernard Karlgren	Li Rong	Pan Wuyun	Edwin Pulleyblank	Wang Li	Shao Rongfen
/kʰɨʌ^H/	/kʰi̯wo^H/	/kʰiɔ^H/	/kʰiɔ^H/	/kʰɨə̆^H/	/kʰĭo^H/	/kʰiɔ^H/

Old Chinese pronunciation (去, reconstructed)
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character		Modern Beijing (Pinyin)			Middle Chinese		Old Chinese			English
去		qù			‹ khjo^X ›		/*[kʰ](r)aʔ/			get rid of
去		qù			‹ khjo^H ›		/*[k]ʰ(r)ap-s/			depart
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system: Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. [t] as coda may in fact be -t or *-p; Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	No.		Phonetic component	Rime group		Rime subdivision		Corresponding MC rime	Old Chinese		Notes
去	10684		去	魚		0		去	/*kʰaʔ/
去	10687		去	魚		0		㰦	/*kʰas/

Definitions[edit]

去

to go, to go away, to leave, to depart

你去哪兒？ [MSC, trad.]

你去哪儿？ [MSC, simp.]

Nǐ qù nǎr? [Pinyin]

Where are you going?
(before or after a verb) to go in order to do something
- 他到辦公室去請假。 [MSC, trad.]
  
  他到办公室去请假。 [MSC, simp.]
  
  Tā dào bàngōngshì qù qǐngjiǎ. [Pinyin]
  
  He went to the office to ask for leave.
- 他去釣魚了，而沒去打網球。 [MSC, trad.]
  
  他去钓鱼了，而没去打网球。 [MSC, simp.]
  
  Tā qù diàoyú le, ér méi qù dǎ wǎngqiú. [Pinyin]
  
  He went fishing instead of playing tennis.
to remove; to get rid of
- 去掉 ― qùdiào ― to remove
- 脱去 ― tuōqù ― to throw off
- 拆去 ― chāiqù ― to remove, to take off
(between two verbs) to; in order to
(used after a verb of motion to indicates movement away from the speaker)
- 下去 ― xiàqù ― to go down ( compare 下來／下来 ("to come down") )
- 送去 ― sòng qù ― to send away
to send
to play (a part, a character); to act
last; past
- 去年 ― qùnián ― last year